10:43 AM EST, 02/18/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Thesis Gold ( THSGF ) was up modestly early Tuesday on the remaining drill results from its near-resource exploration program at the Ranch area, part of the company's fully owned, road-accessible Lawyers-Ranch Project in British Columbia's Toodoggone mining district.

A statement noted the company's Prefeasibility Study "remains on track for Q4 2025 completion", supporting the Environmental Assessment (EA) process set to commence later this year. It said the study will build on the positive results of the 2024 PEA, which outlined "robust" project economics, including an after-tax NPV (5%) of C$1.28 billion, a 35.2% IRR, and a 2.0-year payback period. The PEA also highlighted a strong production profile, projecting over 215,000 AuEq oz/year for 14 years at an AISC of US$1,013.

In parallel, the statement added, exploration and near-resource drilling continue to highlight the potential for further resource growth at Ranch through new discoveries, and the expansion and upgrading of ounces outlined in the PEA.

Among "key" highlight, on Resource Growth, the company said drillhole 24TH2DD002 intersected 19.58m of 1.15 grams per tonne gold (g/t) and 9.92m of 2.69 g/t gold, extending mineralization about 40m at depth around 30m along strike at Thesis II.

Thesis Gold ( THSGF ) said high-grade interval of 26.29 g/t AuEq over 0.67m indicated higher grade domains. The drillhole indicated potential to expand the 2024 mineral resource estimate (MRE).

Geotechnical drillhole 24GTDD008 ended in mineralization, extending the strike length of a copper-gold mineralized domain at Bingo that remains open for testing. It included 10.50m of 0.76 g/t gold and 0.22% copper, including 5.00m of 0.8 g/t gold and 0.37% copper. The company said this drillhole underscored additional expansion potential within the existing MRE.

The company expects its 2025 drilling program to be focused on expanding near-resource mineralization and testing high-priority regional epithermal and porphyry targets. In the second half of the year, it anticipates the commencement of the environmental assessment (EA) and expects the completion of the prefeasibility study (PFS) in the fourth quarter.

"Positive results from near-resource exploration have encouraging implications for the potential to expand and upgrade our confidence on the mineral resource defined in the 2024 PEA, which demonstrated strong project economics highlighted by an after-tax NPV (5%) of C$1.28 billion, an IRR of 35.2% and a payback period of 2.0 years. This shows that the Ranch area of the larger project still provides significant potential for resource growth and, in turn, improved project economics," said Thesis Gold ( THSGF ) Chief Executive Ewan Webster.

Shares were last seen up $0.010 at $0.81 in morning trade on the TSX Venture Exchange.

Price: 0.81, Change: +0.01, Percent Change: +1.25