Ascot grows Premier with Silver Coin buy

Ascot Resources Ltd. Oct. 29 announced it has completed the acquisition of Silver Coin, an advanced stage, gold-silver property immediately adjacent to Ascot's Big Missouri project and five kilometers (about three miles) from the Premier mill in northwestern British Columbia.

The high-grade core of Silver Coin hosts 702,000 metric tons of indicated resource grading 4.46 grams per metric ton (100,660 ounces) gold and 967,000 metric tons of inferred resource grading 4.39 g/t (136,480 oz) gold, according to a resource calculated in 2013.

This mineralization at Silver Coin is characterized as epithermal gold-silver deposit with base metal sulfide-bearing breccias and veins similar to the mineralization on Ascot's Premier property, which hosts the past producing Premier Mine.

The Premier underground mine opened in 1918 and was the largest gold mine in North America until its closure in 1952 producing 2 million oz of gold and 45 million oz of silver. The mine was re-opened as an open-pit operation in the 1990s, producing another 260,000 oz of gold and 5.1 million oz of silver.

"In 1991, Silver Coin ore was processed at Ascot's Premier mill and the metallurgical characteristics of the ore are well understood," said Ascot Resources President and CEO Derek White.

The mill, assay lab building, crusher, tailing storage area and underground development remain on the property.

"Ascot's neighboring infrastructure creates key synergies with the Silver Coin project," White added.

Ascot is working toward resuming production at this historic gold-silver mine near Stewart, B.C.

This work has focused on building upon the higher-grade resources.

This focus on high-grade is reflected in a May resource calculation for Premier-Northern Lights, which is located at and adjacent to the historical mine areas in the southern part of the Premier property.

Premier-Northern Lights hosts 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.

This is within a much larger but lower grade resource for the entire property – 94.71 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.9 g/t (2.75 million oz) gold and 7.2 g/t (21.97 million oz) silver; and 80.92 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.7 g/t (1.81 million oz) gold and 7.56 g/t (19.55 million oz) silver.

A roughly 42,000-meter drill program carried out this year focused largely on building additional high-grade resources in the Big Missouri area, about six kilometers (four miles) north of the Premier mill.

This drilling has encountered strong gold-silver mineralization in at least five zones on Big Missouri Ridge – Big Missouri, Province, S1 Pit, Unicorn and North Star.

Silver Coin, which is located about 800 meters to the south, is expected to add to the high-grade resources in this area.

"Ascot's existing resources, together with the expected Silver Coin resources, will form the initial resource base for our ongoing engineering studies," said White.

To gain ownership of Silver Coin, Ascot acquired all issued and outstanding shares of Jayden's subsidiary, Jayden Resources (Canada) Inc., in exchange for 14.99 million Ascot common shares. In addition, Ascot issued 192,000 additional Ascot shares for the settlement of options and warrants exercised before the closing date with the net cash proceeds of the warrants accruing to Ascot.

Jayden Canada owned 80 percent joint venture interest in Silver Coin, Mountain Boy Minerals owned the balance.

Concurrent with closing the deal with Jayden, Ascot acquired Mountain Boy's interest in Silver Coin in exchange for 3.75 million Ascot shares. In addition, Ascot issued 48,000 additional shares to Mountain Boy for the settlement of Jayden options and warrants exercised before closing.

–SHANE LASLEY