11:21 AM EDT, 07/17/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Liberty Gold ( LGDTF ) on Wednesday said it launched a 20,000-meter drill program at the Black Pine oxide gold project in Idaho to enhance its resource base and unlock new areas of oxide gold mineralization.

The Phase 1 program commencement follows a recent amendment to an existing exploration permit from the U.S. Forest Service that expanded the permitted exploration area by 51% to 37.3 square kilometers.

The expansion opens up access to previously unexplored regions with high potential for discovery of oxide gold mineralization, the company said.

The amendment also aligns access criteria across the Forest Service and adjacent U.S. Bureau of Land Management lands and opens up large areas that previously had timing restrictions for exploration activity. This facilitates drill access to several lower-elevation areas for unrestricted, year-round drilling.

The expanded permit area includes seven untested targets, selected based on their structural, geochemical and geological similarities to areas of adjacent gold mineralization.

National Bank of Canada reiterated its outperform rating on the shares of Liberty Gold ( LGDTF ) and its $0.75 price target following the news.

The bank said it is confident that resources would grow at Black Pine given the nature of mineralization, which tends to be widespread at a low grade.

"Nevertheless, we are more interested in the search for possible higher-grade pockets of mineralization, as these could help improve the payback period for a hypothetical mine plan," the bank said.

Liberty Gold ( LGDTF ) shares were last seen down $0.005 to $0.40 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Price: 0.40, Change: -0.01, Percent Change: -1.23