Targeting the Central Shoot of the Main Zone, the drilling produced some strong results, such as 6.3 grams per tonne over 19.5m, including 9.7g/t over 12m, and 2.9g/t over 4.9m, said to complement an earlier intersection of 2.3g/t over 15m, including 6.5g/t over 4m.

This intersection was about 40m west of a hole that returned 3.4g/t over 20.8m, including 9.1g/t over 4m.

The Eastern shoot of the Main Zone has also been a focus of the infill programme, with Treasury intersecting 4.8g/t gold over 9m, including 10.1g/t over 4m and 1.7g/t over 2m.

Treasury said the drilling continued to trace strong continuity of the mineralised zone in the proposed initial mining areas, which would boost measured resources and "highly increase" confidence in early mine planning.

More results will be reported as they come in, though the company said drilling had been suspended during the coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, a second phase of soil gas hydrocarbon (SGH) sampling on about 5km of strike length east of the established Goliath deposit has identified a series of priority step-out drill targets that could add to the resource.

This work followed an orientation survey last year that captured the Goliath deposit and demonstrated the strong likelihood to vector in on new potential areas of gold mineralisation across the 50sq.km property.

"We are pleased to see that the SGH results are helping to substantiate our hypothesis that there are prospective new targets across our property, in particular the Nose of the large regional fold structure to the northeast of the deposit. Results like these give confidence that step out exploration is the next approach for us to grow our resource," said CEO Greg Ferron.

Treasury is currently navigating the permitting process for the project, for which a 2017 preliminary economic assessment calculated an after-tax NPV, at 5% discount, of C$305 million (US$215 million) with a 25% IRR, based on US$1,225/oz gold and $17/oz silver.

The planned C$133 million Goliath project is expected to produce 87,850oz gold and 160,000oz silver per annum over a 13-year mine life, with peak production expected to yield more than 100,000ozpa gold from years three to six.

Shares in the company (TML:TSX) gained 7.5% or 1.5c on Thursday to 21.5c, which capitalises Treasury at $36.5 million (US$26 million).