Maple Gold Mines Ltd. on Feb. 14 announced an updated resource estimate for its Douay gold project in Quebec, outlining indicated resources containing 479,000 ounces of gold within 9.4 million tonnes at 1.59 g/t of gold.

Inferred resources at Douay are estimated to contain 2.8 million ounces of gold within 84.2 million tonnes at 1.02 g/t of gold. The analysis uses a cutoff of 0.45 g/t of gold and incorporates drilling completed in 2017.

The company, previously known as Aurvista Gold Corp., noted that the new estimate upgraded a significant proportion of inferred resources to the indicated category.

In comparison, the project previously hosted only inferred resources, with a March 2017 estimate outlining 4.4 million ounces of gold contained within 130.0 million tonnes at 1.06 g/t of gold using a 0.5 g/t cutoff.

Maple Gold said the lower cutoff grade is seen as the most optimal for open pit scenarios as currently contemplated and indicated resources occur in the Douay West zone and within four areas of the Porphyry zone.

"We expect additional drill rigs to arrive at site very shortly and look forward to testing further infill, step-out and new discovery targets this winter," Maple Gold President and CEO Matthew Hornor said in the statement.