The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Ascot funded to advance exploration, permitting, feasibility North of 60 Mining News – March 20, 2020
Ascot plans to use the existing mill and other infrastructure from past mining at Premier to resume operations at this gold-silver project near Stewart, British Columbia.
Derek White
Ascot Resources Ltd. March 16 provided a roundup of the progress it made toward advancing its Premier gold-silver mine project in northwestern British Columbia towards development during 2019 and says it is well funded to continue this work during 2020.
Ascot kicked off 2019 with the Jan. 7 acquisition of IDM Mining Ltd., which expanded Ascot's already robust portfolio of high-grade gold-silver mine projects near the mining town of Stewart, B.C.
"Ascot had another busy year in 2019, beginning with the acquisition of the neighboring Red Mountain project to create a leading high-grade gold development and exploration company in northwestern British Columbia's Golden Triangle," said Ascot Resources President and CEO Derek White.
As a result of the IDM acquisition Ascot's mineral properties in the Stewart area covers Premier, a 252-square-kilometer (97 square miles) land package that hosts the past producing Premier and Big Missouri mines; Silver Coin, an adjacent property that also provided ore to the mill at Premier; and Red Mountain.
Premier, which includes a mill, assay lab, crusher, tailing storage area, underground workings and other infrastructure from 1990s era mining provides Ascot with a vanguard toward its plan to resume mining in the Stewart area.
The property also has permits from previous mining that were confirmed by the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency. As a result, Ascot intends to submit a Mines Act Permit Amendment application. If approved, this amendment would re-activate the current mining permits for Premier.
To ready Premier for a feasibility-level study, the company completed 53,000 meters of drilling on the property during 2019. This included infill drilling in Big Missouri, Silver Coin and Premier resource areas, geotechnical drilling at portal locations and drilling on high-priority exploration targets.
This work resulted in a 60 percent increase in the amount of gold in the indicated resource at its Premier project.
According to a resource calculated earlier this year, the four deposits at Premier – Silver Coin, Premier, Big Missouri and Martha Ellen – now hosts 4.14 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 8.01 grams per metric ton (1.07 million ounces) gold and 35.1 g/t (4.67 million oz) silver.
Ascot's newly acquired Silver Coin deposit, which is located about five kilometers (three miles) north of the past producing mill at Premier, has emerged as the largest contributor to the project's overall indicated resource.
Silver Coin now hosts 1.6 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 7.61 g/t (390,000 oz) gold and 23 g/t (1.18 million oz) silver. This is an 86 percent increase in the tonnage and 76 percent increase in the contained gold at Silver Coin, compared to the end of 2018.
The 2019 drilling more than doubled the indicated resource for Big Missouri, a deposit about 800 meters north of Silver Coin. Big Missouri now hosts 1.12 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 8.36 g/t (300,000 oz) gold and 16.9 g/t (607,000 oz) silver. This is a 107 percent increase in the tonnage and 111 percent increase in gold contained in the indicated resource at Big Missouri, compared to the late-2018 calculation.
While the Premier indicated resource did not increase as dramatically, this deposit remains the highest grade outlined so far at the project. Premier now hosts 1.3 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 8.46 g/t (353,000 oz) gold and 64.2 g/t (2.68 million oz) silver. While the Premier indicated tonnage only increased by 4 percent, higher grades pushed the total amount of gold contained in the indicated resource category up 26 percent.
In addition to the resources on the properties in the immediate vicinity of the Premier mill, the company's Red Mountain project about 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) to the southwest add substantially to Ascot's gold and silver resource in the Stewart area.
According to an October calculation, Red Mountain hosts 3.19 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 7.63 g/t (782,600 oz) gold and 21 g/t (2.2 million oz) silver.
Together, the deposits at Premier and Red Mountain now host 1.85 million oz of gold and 6.8 million oz of silver in the measured and indicated categories.
"We convincingly achieved our goal of rapidly creating a strong base of measured and indicated resources as the basis for developing a mine plan for the project," White said in January.
These resources will form the basis for a feasibility study that remains on track to be completed by the end of this month.
In February, Ascot closed a C$10.3 million private placement. This, along with the C$3 million of working capital at the onset of 2020, provides the company with the funds needed to advance exploration, permitting, engineering and economic studies at its northwestern B.C. projects this year.
"I would like to take this opportunity to thank the hard-working team of people working together to advance the company forward," said White. "In particular I thank all of our shareholders who continue to support us as we continue towards the development of the Premier gold project."
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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