Further lab assays are awaited from the current programme.

BonTerra VP exploration Dale Ginn said identification of Barbeau as a potential fifth mineralised zone at Gladiator indicated the strength of the gold system.

"Further exploration of the new Barbeau Zone will be included in the winter drilling campaign, where we expect to have six drill rigs operating on the property," he said. "As we progress through the drill program, we continue to gain an excellent understanding of the significant gold system at Gladiator, which is leading to the accelerated development of our geological model."

BonTerra's planned 2018 NI 43-101 mineral resource update will incorporate results of about 100,000m of new drilling over three years. The Gladiator deposit has been outlined to a vertical depth of 1,200m, and over a 1.2km strike length, and is said to remain open in all directions.

Barbeau intersections to date include 28.5g/t over 3.3m and 3m of  20.7g/t.

BonTerra shares are up more than 20% in the past week to C61c at Thursday's close, giving the company a market capitalisation of C$116 million.

Its shares have more than doubled since the start of 2017.