The first hole of 13 planned at Secret Pass as part of a 15,000m drilling programme intersected 70.07m at 1.79g/t gold from 152.86m.

"Exploration potential in this area is excellent and Northern Empire's recent acquisition of the Rosie claims, directly south of Secret Pass deposit, gives our team access to highly prospective drill targets," president and CEO Michael Allen said.

Secret Pass is a past-producing openpit mine that lies 12km from the former Barrick Gold (CN:ABX) Bullfrog mine and 3.4km from the former Motherlode mine, now owned by explorer Corvus Gold (CN:KOR).

It has an inferred resource of 188,000 ounces at 1.65g/t.

Northern Empire's aggressive 2018 exploration programme is designed to expand existing resources and make new discoveries at its 141sq.km Sterling project.

The company raised C$15 million (US$11.8 million) in a rapidly increased financing at 90c per share in November.

Its shares hit a 52-week high of C$1.44 earlier this month and closed down 1c yesterday to $1.24, capitalising it at $82.4 million.