The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Expansive drilling, Silver Coin doubles high-grade resources North of 60 Mining News – December 7, 2018
A measured and indicated resource containing 667,000 ounces of gold and 2.34 million oz of silver helps to advance Ascot's primary objective of having high-grade material to feed the mill at Premier, a historical mine near Stewart, B.C.
Through a combination of management cutting deals at the negotiating table and drills cutting gold-silver across an expanding property in British Columbia's Golden Triangle, Ascot Resources Ltd. has substantially increased the high-grade resource available to feed the mill at its Premier gold-silver mine project just outside of Stewart, B.C.
"Management worked hard to develop a series of resources in 2018 and I am very pleased to announce a significant increase to our high-grade resources during the year," said Ascot Resources President and CEO Derek White.
At a cut-off grade of 3.5 grams per metric ton gold, the Premier property now hosts 2.78 million metric tons of indicated resources averaging 7.46 g/t (667,000 ounces) of gold and 26.2 g/t (2.34 million oz) of silver; and 6.03 million metric tons of inferred resources averaging 7.18 g/t (1.39 million oz) gold and 24 g/t (4.65 million oz) silver.
This marks a 230 percent increase in the tonnage gold grades in the higher confidence indicated resources and the inferred resource tonnage has increased by nearly 370 percent, with higher gold grades in both categories, when compared to a resource calculated in May.
The ability to add so much gold to the Premier resources in just six months is the product of a 45,848-meter drill program focused on expanding the high-grade resource on the past-producing Premier property and the acquisition of Silver Coin, an adjacent property that historically provided ore for the Premier mill.
Drills expand resource
The Premier property has a century of gold-silver production under its belt. An underground mine there produced 2 million oz of gold and 45 million oz of silver from 1918 to 1952; and an open-pit operation in the 1990s produced another 260,000 oz of gold and 5.1 million oz of silver.
While Premier continues to host a much larger but lower grade gold-silver resource than is reflected in the new estimate, Ascot leadership sees the development of higher grade, underground resources as the most efficient and profitable path toward resuming production at this historic mine about 25 kilometers (16 miles) north of Stewart.
With this strategy, the company focused its 2018 exploration program on higher grade zones across the Premier-Dilworth property.
Much of this work focused on a series of zones at Big Missouri Ridge, an area about six kilometers (four miles) north of the Premier mill that includes the North Star, Province and Unicorn zones.
As a result, Big Missouri now hosts 859,000 metric tons of indicated resource averaging 8.19 g/t (142,000 oz) gold and 20.5 g/t (355,000 oz) silver; and 2.25 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 8.25 g/t (596,000 oz) gold and 18.4 g/t (1.33 million oz) silver.
A small amount of drilling was also carried out this year at Premier-Northern Lights, the main underground working adjacent to the mill and the largest underground resource outlined so far on the property.
In September, Ascot reported that drilling had extended gold-silver mineralization 150 meters from the underground resource area toward a portal at the past producing mine.
Premier-Northern Lights now hosts 1.25 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 6.97 g/t (281,000 oz) of gold and 30.2 g/t (1.22 million oz) silver; and 1.74 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 5.95 g/t (333,000 oz) gold and 24.2 g/t (1.35 million oz) silver.
High-grade zones at Martha Ellen and Dilworth, roughly 1,500 and 3,000 meters north of Big Missouri, respectively, also contributed to the new resource.
Silver Coin contributions
Among the biggest contributors to the Premier resource came from the acquisition of Silver Coin, a property that lies to the northwest of Premier and the southwest of Dilworth, forming a continuous 8,039-hectare (19,865 acres) property.
This new property adds 859,000 metric tons of indicated resource averaging 8.01 g/t (221,000 oz) gold and 20.5 g/t (566,000 oz) silver; and 1.16 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 7.78 g/t (289,000 oz) gold and 22.1 g/t (821,000 oz) silver to the Premier resource calculation.
This epithermal gold-silver deposit at Silver Coin hosts mineralization very similar to the ore historically mined at Premier. In fact, Silver Coin ore was processed at the Premier mill in 1991.
With high-grade gold-silver resources at Silver Coin adding to the growing deposits on the Premier-Dilworth properties, Ascot has the foundation to begin considering the re-opening of the Premier Mine.
"We will continue to focus on developing our engineering studies around three spatially separate potential mining areas diversifying the production risk," said Ascot Resources CEO White. "Our principal business objective is to maximize the utilization of the existing infrastructure, specifically with regard to the mill throughput and I remain very optimistic about Ascot's future success."
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
Reader Comments(0)