About four months into the planned two-year construction of Argonaut Gold’s (TSX: AR) new cornerstone Magino project in Ontario, smooth progress and encouraging new exploration results have CEO Peter Dougherty in a forward-thinking mood.

While Argonaut is crossing off early construction milestones at the C$480 to C$510 million mine build, the company continues to report high-grade gold intercepts from ongoing exploration initiatives below and next to the project’s defined open-pit boundaries.