Drills reveal bigger Back River picture

Sabina Gold & Silver Corp. Jan. 7 provided final results from the 2018 drill program at the company's Back River gold project in Nunavut, including holes that further expanded the Nuvuyak discovery.

In 2018, Sabina completed 22,500 meters of diamond drilling, including a 16,500-meter summer program largely focused on the new high-grade discovery at Nuvuyak, as well as advancing additional high priority targets at Goose, one of five mineral properties that comprise the larger Back River project.

The Goose Main, Llama and Umwelt deposits on the Goose property host 7 million metric tons of proven reserves averaging 5.98 grams per metric ton gold (1.35 million oz) gold and 5.36 million metric tons of probable reserves averaging 6.72 g/t (1.16 million oz) gold.

These deposits are found along a 7,000-meter-long trend that is bracketed by Llama to the west and Goose Main to the east.

Nuvuyak seems likely to add to the reserves found along this trend.

The Nuvuyak discovery hole, reported by Sabina in August, cut 39.5 meters of 11.58 g/t gold in a strongly quartz veined, altered and mineralized iron formation sequence with strong similarities to the high-grade Umwelt "Vault" zone.

Follow-up drilling continued to rapidly expand this high-grade gold discovery.

In the latest batch of results, hole 18GSE559 cut 13 meters of 8.17 g/t gold about 50 meters down-plunge of the discovery hole 18GSE545.

Hole 559 was used as a parent hole for a subsequent wedge hole, 18GSE559W1, started at a depth of 435 meters. The wedge hole cut 8.7 meters of 12.41 g/t gold about 80 meters up-dip of the parent hole.

The Sabina geological team hypothesizes that an interconnected large-scale mineralization trend, or a number of related trends, extends from the southern Goose Main zone to the northern Llama zone. The Nuvuyak discovery adds credence to this theory.

Sabina's summer drill program was also successful in testing some of the other high-priority targets along this trend. This includes expansion of Llama Extension, Umwelt, Hook, Echo, and Nuvuyak.

Additionally, the company demonstrated strong exploration targeting components at Boulder, a Back River property located about 15 kilometers (nine miles) north of the Goose property.

"Our success in making a new discovery at the Nuvuyak target, high grade optimization drilling at Umwelt Vault, confirming a sizable extension at Llama and demonstrating the Boulder property as an area for potential new discoveries, are significant developments in 2018," said Sabina Gold President and CEO Bruce McLeod. "This work continues to unlock a much larger picture in terms of resource and district potential and overall mine life extension."

Sabina said it is in the final stage of designing and budgeting a 2019 exploration program that will include mapping, sampling, geophysics and drilling at Back River. This work is designed to expand existing resources and advance and delineate exploration targets towards the discovery of new mineralization that has the potential to favorably impact project economics.

It is expected that a 6,000-meter spring drilling program will get underway in early March with a follow up program during the summer months. This drilling will focus on following up on the significant 2018 results at Nuvuyak along with testing a number of targets that include the up-plunge trending Hook zone and higher grade areas of the Llama extension structure.

At the same time, the company will continue to carry out early mine development activities designed to provide greater certainty on capital expenditure (CAPEX) components of the gold mine at Back River and de-risk critical logistical elements of the project. These initiatives create value and improve the Project readiness for when the time is right to make a production decision.

"Sabina has successfully completed a number of de-risking activities during 2018 as we push towards project development while concurrently demonstrating, through exploration success that Back River is a world class gold project within an emerging district," said McLeod.

A 2015 feasibility study details plans for developing three deposits at Goose, which would provide ore for a 3,000-metric-ton-per-day mill forecast to produce an average of 198,100 ounces of gold per year over an 11.8-year mine.

–SHANE LASLEY