Drills hit Premier resource upgrade target

Ascot Resources Ltd. Nov. 18 reported high-grade gold intercepts from 19 holes drilled in the Prew zone at its Premier gold mine project near Stewart, British Columbia.

Prew, which is within the Northern Lights area of the Premier deposit, was discovered by Ascot in 2017.

Highlights from the discovery drilling at Prew include:

• 12.5 meters of 8.04 grams per metric ton gold in P17-1452;

• 4.22 meters of 15.9 g/t gold in P17-1493;

• six meters of 10.57 g/t gold in hole P17-1506; and

• 25.1 meters of 6.47 g/t in P17-1558.

Ascot says all 19 holes drilled at Prew this year cut gold mineralization.

Highlights from these holes include:

• 5.03 meters of 37.95 g/t gold in P19-2153;

• 13.03 meters of 8.14 g/t gold in P19-2156; and

• 8.75 meters of 8.39 g/t gold in P19-2151.

"Impressive drill results such as these reinforce our confidence in the Premier deposit," said Ascot Resources President and CEO Derek White. "From a technical viewpoint, these results demonstrate our ability to predict the position of mineralized zones in the deposit. The intercepts are close to where they were expected, and the high-grade nature of the mineralization confirms the quality of the Prew zone overall."

Situated within the northeastern part of the Premier deposit, Prew forms the down-dip continuation of Ben, another Northern Lights subzone discovered during 2017. Following the updated resource estimate for Premier at the end of 2018, it was determined that there was a gap in the drill pattern that prevented a high-grade portion of this zone from achieving classification in the indicated category. The 19 holes drilled this year at Prew targeted this gap and will contribute to upgrading the resource in this zone from the inferred to the indicated category.

"We are very excited to conduct a new resource estimate at Premier which will then feed into a feasibility study for the project," White added. "We anticipate to be very busy until the end of 2019 and into the beginning of next year until the study is complete."

Ascot has completed approximately 52,400 meters of drilling at Premier in 2019. Results from nearly 40 percent of the holes completed this year are pending.

–SHANE LASLEY