Auryn eyes development of gold-silver mine in BC

Auryn Resources Inc. Dec. 12 reported that this summer's drill program has identified the plunge of the high-grade South Reef zone at its Homestake Ridge gold-silver epithermal project in the Golden Triangle region of northwestern British Columbia. Highlights include 30 meters of 2 grams per metric ton gold; 10 meters of 4.12 g/t gold; 18 meters of 1.29 g/t gold; 8 meters of 2.67 g/t gold; and 14 meters of 1.23 g/t gold. Auryn said these results identified the geometry of the high-grade mineralization at the South Reef main zone that remains open to the northwest and importantly have identified an emerging parallel high-grade structure (Upper zone) 175 meters to the north of the main zone.

"We are very excited about the South Reef extension as it demonstrates strong similarities to the robust Main Zone," said Auryn Chairman Ivan Bebek. "Our best intercepts came at the end of the program which resulted in strong expansion opportunities that will be exciting to follow up in 2018."

When Auryn acquired Homestake Ridge in 2016, the three main deposits – Homestake, Homestake Silver and South Reef –hosted 604,000 metric tons of indicated resource averaging 6.4 g/t (124,000 ounces) gold; 48.3 g/t (939,000 oz) silver; and 0.18 percent (2.4 million pounds) copper. These zones host another 6.77 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 4.2 g/t (911,000 oz) gold; 93.6 g/t (20.37 million oz) silver; and 0.11 percent (16.3 million lb) copper.

Auryn plans to incorporate the results from the 37 holes drilled this year into a preliminary economic assessment for this high-grade precious metals project in 2018.

"The Homestake Ridge deposit stands out as a highly valuable asset with respect to its current size, grade and excellent access to infrastructure," said Bebek. "In an effort to unlock more value in the project in addition to the discovery of additional ounces we have also begun the necessary steps to advance the project towards development."

-SHANE LASLEY