Ascot drills Premier electrum prospect

Ascot Resources Ltd. Sept. 24 said it has completed its roughly 44,000 meters of resources expansion and upgrade drilling at the Big Missouri, Silver Coin and Premier deposit areas and has begun grassroots exploration across its wider land package near the town of Stewart, British Columbia.

This discovery-focused program, recently approved by the Ascot board of directors, will include 3,000 to 5,000 meter of drilling testing four targets, as well as additional ground geophysical surveys.

"The infill drilling portion of the 2019 campaign has now been completed and we can turn our attention to more exploration-oriented targets," said Ascot Resources President and CEO Derek White. "One of the more exciting exploration targets the company is currently focused on is the Silver Hill prospect, located at the northeastern part of our Premier property."

The Silver Hill prospect is hosted within mid-Jurassic volcanic rocks of the Dilworth formation, which were deposited at a comparable time and in a similar tectonic environment to that which hosts the precious metals-rich Eskay Creek volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit.

Ascot is currently drilling beneath the surface expression of a 20- to 25-meter-wide zone of epithermal-style veins, breccias and stockworks hosting electrum, galena and pyrite mineralization. A sample from a historical trench contained more than 10,000 grams per metric ton silver, 14 g/t gold, 16.55 percent zinc and 6.49 percent lead.

Silver Hill is just across the border from Pretium Resources' Bowser claims, a primary focus of that company's 2019 exploration drilling program.

"This part of the property is located on the boundary between the Dilworth and Bowser basin formations which is an equivalent of the stratigraphic position that hosts the Eskay Creek deposit," said White. "We have also undertaken a geophysical survey that indicated some additional deeper targets to the northeast of Silver Hill which we will continue to explore."

Further north, Ascot has completed a geophysical profile, which has resulted in a very interesting target at depth.

A northeast contact trends from Ascot's property, through Pretium's Bowser claims towards the Brucejack Mine. There are potential VMS-style targets similar to Eskay Creek along the northern part of this trend with epithermal targets further south.

In addition to Silver Hill, the company plans to drill a target northeast of the Silver Coin deposit where a 12.1- meter sample of a historical trench averaged 8.4 g/t gold and 23.9 g/t silver.

Ascot said the wider Premier property hosts multiple new targets with the potential to add significantly to the existing high-grade gold resources. The company plans to continue its examination and drilling of these targets well into the fall season.

–SHANE LASLEY