Banyan adds Hyland gold, eyes heap-leach

Banyan Gold Corp. March 22 announced an expansion of the Main Zone deposit at its Hyland Gold project about 45 miles (74 kilometers) east of Watson Lake in southeastern Yukon.

Hyland now hosts 8.6 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.74 grams per metric ton (216,000 ounces) gold and 7.04 g/t (1.95 million oz) silver; and 10.8 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.77 g/t (266,000 oz) gold and 5.32 g/t (1.85 million oz) silver.

"Banyan is delighted with the increase in both confidence and overall extent of gold ounces at the Hyland Main Zone from the previous resource model," said Banyan Gold President and CEO Tara Christie. "These results underscore the fact that the company has identified and meaningfully added gold ounces to this near-surface, heap-leach amenable deposit. Moreover, this updated mineral resource estimate has identified a new geologic model that opens up the exploration potential of the deposit to the east, an area largely ignored by historic drilling and exploration."

In addition to expanding the resource, Banyan said its exploration over the previous two seasons has resulted in a new geological model where gold-silver mineralization preferentially develops within the brittle quartzite units, opening potential mineralization continuity at the Main Zone on all sides and to depth.

The 2017 program included 3,850 meters of drilling focused on infill, step-out and metallurgical drilling concentrated on the Main Zone gold-silver mineralization.

The metallurgical work indicates that the gold in the Hyland Main Zone has the potential to be recovered by heap-leach.

Metallurgical results from the three column leach tests returned average gold recoveries of 86 percent over a 58-day period. Banyan also pointed out the testing demonstrated strong leaching kinetics with a range of 73-87 percent of the ultimate recovery occurring within the first week of leaching.

"The recoveries and leach kinetics from a course crush are highly encouraging and confirm the Hyland Main Zone could be exploited as an open-pit, heap-leach operation," said Christie. "These results represent the first ever advanced recovery test-work completed on the Main Zone and deeply validate a potential scenario for economic extraction of gold mineralization from this deposit as an open-pit, heap-leach operation."

–SHANE LASLEY