VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Development company Integra Resources has declared a maiden resource at its Florida Mountain gold/silver project, located 8.5 km east of Integra's DeLamar deposit, in southwestern Idaho.

The Vancouver-based company reported a Canadian National Instrument 43-101-compliant inferred resource of 36.61-million tonnes, grading 0.57 g/t gold and 14.12 g/t silver, containing 675 000 oz of gold and 16.6-million ounces of silver, or 871 000 oz gold-equivalent at a grade of 0.74 g/t.

The resource estimate was based on a cutoff grade of 0.3 g/t gold-equivalent.

According to Integra, for the purposes of reporting compliant resource models, the Florida Mountain and DeLamar projects are now considered part of the global DeLamar project, with the projects likely to share common infrastructure, as they did in the past.

The maiden resource estimate, calculated by Mine Development Associates of Reno, Nevada, was defined by more than 840 historical drill holes drilled to an average depth of just 130 m, incorporating more than 108 000 m of historic drilling. The study delineates the existing 'openpit' oxide, partly oxidised and unoxidised mineralisation at Florida Mountain, which is hosted within felsic volcanics.

As a result, Integra's DeLamar project now has an inferred mineral resource of 3.54-million gold-equivalent ounces, at a grade of 0.71 g/t, applying a 0.3 g/t gold-equivalent cutoff.

"The maiden gold/silver resource at Florida Mountain provides substantial synergies for the company as it advances its Idaho land package and expanding resource portfolio," president and CEO George Salamis said in a statement.

He added that the exploration upside at Florida Mountain is significant. "Below this low-grade pit-constrained resource, only two of several possible veins interpreted from available drilling were mined historically in the late 1880s at cutoffs of more than 15 g/t gold, with average grades often exceeding 30 g/t gold.

"Stope widths reportedly ranged from 5 m to less than 1 m in width. Underground workings and historic drilling demonstrate that the vein system has strike lengths in excess of 2 km and depth extensions in excess of 500 m, extending down through the rhyolite and basalt into the underlying Idaho Granite basement."

Salamis also pointed out that the low-sulphidation epithermal system at Florida Mountain showed higher gold-to-silver ratios than those found at DeLamar. In terms of future potential amenability to heap leaching of this new low-grade resource, Kinross had previously conducted column leach testwork on Florida mineralisation that showed excellent gold and silver recoveries.

"The strategic advantage of having two significant resources in place at DeLamar and now Florida Mountain provides increased flexibility for Integra moving forward. The company is in a unique position to start a drill programme with an impressive resource already established at both DeLamar and Florida Mountain," he advised.

The TSX-V-listed stock of Integra fell nearly 9% on Friday morning to C$1.27 apiece, on the back of a volatile equities trading week.