Unicorn gold supports Premier Mine restart

Ascot Resources Ltd. Aug. 9 reported that drilling has cut high-grade gold mineralization in the Unicorn and Province zones at Big Missouri Ridge, a target about 5,000 meters north of the Premier-Northern Lights area of the company's Premier-Dilworth property about 16 miles (25 kilometers) north of Stewart in the Golden Triangle region of northwestern British Columbia.

The more than 100-square-kilometer (38.6 square miles) Premier-Dilworth property is home to the Premier Mine, a past-producer of 2.1 million ounces of gold and 44.9 million oz silver. Infrastructure from the operations used up until 2001 – including mill, assay lab building, crusher, tailing storage area and underground development – remain on the property.

A resource estimate published in May outlines 1.21 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 7.02 grams per metric ton (273,000 oz) gold and 30.6 g/t (1.19 million oz) silver; and 1.64 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 6.01 g/t (317,000 oz) gold and 24.9 g/t (1.31 million oz) silver at the Premier-Northern Lights area of the property.

Ascot is working towards resuming underground production with the facilities and infrastructure already in place on the Premier property near Stewart, B.C.

The 2018 drill program, which got underway in April, is designed to extend mineralized zones at Premier-Northern Lights; convert current resources from inferred to indicated in existing zones; and to delineate high-grade zones in the Big Missouri-Martha Ellen area about 5,000 meters to the north. The overall purpose of this drilling is to add to the existing resource base to support initial engineering studies that began in June.

Highlights from the latest 37 holes drilled at Big Missouri include: 15.8 meters of 14.22 grams per metric ton gold and 11.5 g/t silver in hole P18-1678 at Unicorn; four meters of 6.45 g/t gold and 12 g/t silver in hole P18-1708 at Unicorn; two meters of 25.4 g/t gold and eight g/t silver in hole P18-1691 at Province; and two meters of 14.6 g/t gold and 7.7 g/t silver in hole P18-1696 at Province.

"The clustered high-grade intercepts near surface in the Province zone and the new intercepts at Unicorn look very good," said Ascot Resources President and CEO Derek White. "These new results increase our confidence that the resource update for the Premier and Big Missouri areas will establish a sufficient resource base to restart the Premier mill."

Highlights from holes drilled earlier this year include 7.3 meters averaging 15.27 g/t gold and 9.73 g/t silver in hole P18-1652 at Big Missouri; seven meters of 10.28 g/t gold and 9.5 g/t silver in P18-1617 at Big Missouri; 12.1 meters of 11.65 g/t gold and 122.1 g/t silver in P18-1605 at the 602 zone of Premier-Northern Lights; 9.61 meters of 24.64 g/t gold and 9.2 g/t silver in P18-1609 at the 602 zone; and two meters of 10.3 g/t gold and 5.5 g/t silver in hole P18-1651 at the 602 zone.

In addition to drilling, Ascot is engaged with several consulting groups to provide all relevant data for permitting and preliminary engineering. Currently there is a hydrogeological drill program in progress that will establish monitoring wells in support of a hydrogeological flow model.

Ascot personnel are in the process of assembling three metallurgical composites for test work to confirm historical parameters such as hardness and gold recovery. Process optimization appears to be possible in a variety of areas and will be investigated further.

Additional work is underway in the areas of underground mine design and the refurbishment of the mill.

–SHANE LASLEY