The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Cash will fund drilling at Eskay Creek gold-silver mine project North of 60 Mining News – February 7, 2020
Rows of core from past drilling at GJ, a large copper-gold project about 30 kilometers west of Newcrest and Imperial Metals' Red Chris Mine in northern B.C.
Skeena completed approximately 15,000 meters of drilling at Eskay Creek late in 2019 and plans to resume drilling on the northern B.C. gold-silver property later this month.
Skeena Resources Ltd. Jan. 4 announced that it is selling two British Columbia exploration properties for C$8 million for exploration, which will provide funds for ongoing exploration at its Eskay Creek gold-silver project.
Most of these funds will come from the sale of the GJ copper-gold-silver property in northern British Columbia to Newcrest Mining Lt. for C$7.5 million cash.
In 2015, Skeena cut a deal to buy full ownership of the GJ from Teck Resources Ltd. and NGEx Resources Inc. Located about 30 kilometers (19 miles) west of Imperial Metals and Newcrest's Red Chris copper-gold mine, GJ is crossed by Highway 37 and the 287 kilovolt Northwest Transmission Line that delivers grid power Red Chris.
The main deposit at GJ, Donnelly, host 215.2 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 0.26 percent (1.24 billion pounds) copper, 0.31 grams per metric ton (2.14 million ounces) gold and 1.9 g/t (13 million oz) silver; plus 28.3 million metric tons of inferred resource grading 0.14 percent (85.1 million lb) copper, 0.31 g/t (280,000 oz) gold and 1.8 g/t (1.6 million oz) silver.
Under the terms of the sale agreement, Newcrest will make a cash payment of C$7.5 million to Skeena and assume responsibility for any future payments and royalties associated with GJ.
The sale is currently slated to close on May 3.
Skeena has also sold its Blackdome-Elizabeth gold property in southern B.C. to Tempus Resources Ltd. for C$500,000 of cash.
"Advancing the Eskay Creek project is Skeena's primary focus. Therefore, we are divesting the GJ property and the Blackdome-Elizabeth property as a way to raise funds for Eskay while incurring the least amount of equity dilution possible to our shareholders," said Skeena Resources CEO Walter Coles.
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 (47.8 million oz) silver; plus 13.57 metric tons of surface mineable inferred resource averaging 2.2 g/t (984,000 oz) gold and 42 g/t (18.5 million oz) silver.
This resource provided a basis for a preliminary economic assessment that outlined an open pit operation at Eskay Creek that would produce an average of 236,000 oz of gold and 5.8 million oz of silver annually over an initial mine-life of 8.6 years.
Skeena has completed roughly 15,000 feet of infill and expansion drilling at Eskay Creek that is not included in the resource calculation.
The company has four ground-based drill rigs staged at Eskay Creek property and plans to begin its 2020 phase I infill and exploration drill program this month.
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.
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