The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News – August 9, 2019
A drill expands near surface gold-silver mineralization at Eskay Creek during 2018. This year, Skeena Resources is focused on upgrading surface mineable resources at this precious metal-rich VMS project with 15,000 meters of drilling.
Skeena Resources Ltd. Aug. 7 announced the start of a roughly 15,000-meters surface drill program at its Eskay Creek gold-silver project in British Columbia's Golden Triangle.
From 1994 to 2008, Barrick Gold Corp. operated an underground mine at Eskay Creek that produced roughly 3.3 million ounces of gold and 160 million oz of silver at average grades of 45 grams per metric ton gold and 2,224 g/t silver, which at the time made it the world's highest-grade gold mine and fifth-largest silver mine by volume..
Since its 2017 deal to acquire Eskay Creek from Barrick, Skeena Resources has focused largely on expanding and upgrading resources that can be mined from the surface.
Following a 46-hole drill program completed last year, Eskay Creek hosts 12.71 million metric tons of surface mineable indicated resource averaging 4.5 g/t (1.82 million oz) gold and 117 g/t (47.79 million oz) silver; and 13.57 metric tons of surface mineable inferred resource averaging 2.2 g/t (984,000 oz) gold and 42 g/t (18.46 million oz) silver.
The 2019 phase 1 drill program now underway will initially focus on upgrading pit-constrained inferred resources in the 22, 21A, 21E and HW zones at Eskay Creek to the higher confidence indicated resource category.
Zones that require helicopter support will be targeted first, with drilling in the 21B zone, which can be tested with ground transported rigs, to be drilled later in the year
Skeena plans to drill more than 200 holes at an average depth of about 75 meters during this phase of Eskay Creek drilling. Hole spacings required for indicated resources varies by zone but averages 15 to 20 meters between holes.
A second drill is expected to arrive at the property in the coming weeks. In addition to accelerating the infill drilling, this second rig may focus on exploration step-out holes to test the near-surface expansion potential at Eskay Creek.
In addition to the open-pit resource, Eskay Creek also hosts 819,000 metric tons of underground indicated resource averaging 6.4 g/t (169,000 oz) gold and 139 g/t (3.66 million oz) silver; and 295,000 metric tons of underground inferred resource averaging 7.1 g/t (78,000 oz) gold and 82 g/t (778,000 oz) silver.
Skeena also plans to complete 5,000 meters of drilling at Snip, another Golden Triangle gold project the company acquired from Barrick, later this fall.
Operated by Barrick in the 1990s, the historic underground mine at Snip produced 1.1 million ounces of gold from 1.25 million metric tons of ore averaging 27.5 g/t gold.
The most prolific of the high-grade zone mined by Barrick, Twin, produced 709,601 oz of gold from ore that averaged 28.95 g/t gold.
Skeena's planned 2019 drill program at Snip will target mineralization down-plunge of the Twin zone and in 200 Foot Wall, another high-grade gold zone at Snip.
–SHANE LASLEY
Reader Comments(0)