Beauce Gold Fields (TSXV: BGF.V) secured provincial authorization to advance exploration at its Saint-Simon-les-Mines placer gold project in Quebec, setting the stage for a comprehensive drilling and geophysical program next year.
"The receipt of the ATI authorizations marks an important step forward for our 2026 exploration program," Patrick Levasseur, president and CEO of Beauce Gold Fields, said. "With these approvals in place, we can now proceed with sonic drilling and geophysical surveys designed to validate and refine our exploration target and improve our understanding of the paleoplacer channel geometry and gold distribution. This program represents the next step in systematically advancing one of the most significant historical placer gold systems in Eastern North America."
Quebec's Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests issued two impact exploration work authorizations (ATI-703 and ATI-704) that permit the Vancouver-based company to conduct sonic drilling and seismic refraction surveys within specific exploration areas of the paleoplacer channel. The permits remain valid until April 21, 2028.
The authorizations target defined polygons within what the company describes as one of Eastern North America's most significant historical placer gold systems. Beauce Gold Fields plans to use sonic drilling to test high-priority deltaic areas identified through updated geological modeling, while seismic surveys will map bedrock topography beneath surface materials.
The work follows an updated exploration target published in September that estimates the paleoplacer channel contains between 3.86 million cubic metres at 0.81 grams of gold per cubic metre and 4.9 grams of gold per cubic metre, including nugget effects. Company officials emphasize this target remains conceptual, requiring additional exploration before any mineral resource can be defined.
Historical mining at Saint-Simon-les-Mines produced substantial quantities of coarse gold from the 1860s through the 1960s, including multi-ounce nuggets that helped establish the site as Canada's first gold rush district. The Beauce region yielded some of the largest gold nuggets in Canadian mining history, with specimens exceeding 50 ounces.
Beyond validating historical data integrated into recent geological reinterpretation, the 2026 program aims to characterize gold-bearing horizons within the paleochannel system. Beauce Gold Fields continues exploring bedrock sources that fed the extensive placer deposits, focusing on recently discovered antiform systems.
For more information, please visit: www.BeauceGold.com
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