Linear steps up drilling at Ixhuatan gold project

Canadian junior Linear Gold (TSX: LLR) is stepping up its drilling program at the Campamento area of its Ixhuatan gold project in Mexico's Chiapas state, the company's manager of investor relations Terry Christopher told BNamericas. Linear recently announced that it had identified additional gold mineralization to the east and south of pervious drilling at the main Campamento target. "These recent results are quite exciting because up to this point in time we had thought that maybe the southern extension had been closed off but it appears with this new data that we may have an open southern extension," he said. The company is now bringing more drill rigs to Ixhuatan in an attempt to expand its exploration both inside and outside of this target. Linear will place three or four drills in the original Campamento target, while another one or two will focus on targets outside this area, Christopher said. Currently there are only two rigs operating. Christopher said Linear's focus is now on exploring as much of the property as possible. "We just raised Cdn$25mn dollars and we plan to spend at least Cdn$10mn at Campamento this year. Our goal is to find as much gold as we can over the next 12 to 24 months so we become a high priority takeover target for a major mining company," he said. Linear still plans to have a mineral resource for the Campamento target established by the end of the year, he added.