Recent surface and underground drilling completed by Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. at its Taylor gold operation in northeastern Ontario expanded existing mineralization and outlined new zones.

The company said Jan. 30 that surface drilling 800 meters to the east of the Shaft deposit at Taylor discovered a new zone of mineralization, returning 9.6 meters at 3.29 g/t of gold from a depth of 278.9 meters and 11.0 meters at 2.35 g/t of gold from 215.0 meters. Mineralization remains open at depth and along strike to the east.

Surface drilling 300 meters to the west of the WPZ deposit intersected 3.2 meters at 10.31 g/t of gold from 254.4 meters. Follow-up drilling is underway with two diamond drill rigs.

In addition, underground drilling expanded the WPZ deposit updip of the 1004 zone, with 4.5 meters at 9.5 g/t of gold from 147.0 meters, and 330 meters downdip of existing development, with 1.1 meters at 39.62 g/t of gold from 332.4 meters.

"In planning our 2017 exploration program, the goal is to significantly add to the resource to allow increasing production and mine life beyond 10 years," Kirkland Lake CEO Tony Makuch commented. "This is our first opportunity to capitalize on the underground drill platforms and we are pleased with the exploration success to date."

The Taylor mine is expected to produce 55,000 ounces to 60,000 ounces of gold in 2017. Earlier in January, the company outlined overall annual guidance in the range of 500,000 ounces to 525,000 ounces of gold for 2017, with all-in sustaining costs of between US$950 per ounce and US$1,000 per ounce.