The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Drilling encounters gold in gap between new zone and deposit North of 60 Mining News – November 20, 2020
Visible gold encountered at a depth of 171.5 meters in P20-2216, a hole drilled into the Day Zone discovery east of the Big Missouri deposit on Ascot Resources' Premier property.
Ascot drilled16 holes from three pads this year at Day Zone.
Holes 2217 and 2245 cut high-grade gold mineralization in the gap between Day Zone and Big Missouri. There is a variety of possibilities how the intercepts are connected that will require additional drilling to fully ascertain.
Ascot Resources Ltd. Nov. 19 reports that drilling has tapped gold between the newly discovered Day Zone and the Big Missouri gold deposit on the company's Premier gold-silver project just outside of Stewart, British Columbia.
The drilling at Day Zone is part of Ascot's 2020 program aimed at testing zones that could provide additional ore to a new era of gold mining at the historic Premier Mine.
A feasibility study completed for Ascot earlier this year envisions four mines – Silver Coin, Big Missouri, Red Mountain, and Premier – delivering ore to an existing 1990s era mill at Premier. At 2,500 metric tons per day, this operation is expected to produce roughly 1.1 million ounces of gold and 3 million oz of silver over an initial eight-year mine life.
This production is based on 3.63 million metric tons of probable reserves averaging 5.45 grams per metric ton (637,000 oz) gold and 19.1 g/t (2.23 million oz) silver in the Premier, Silver Coin, and Big Missouri deposits on the Premier property; plus 2.55 million metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 6.52 g/t (534,000 oz) gold and 20.6 g/t (1.69 million oz) silver at Red Mountain, a separate property about 25 kilometers (16 miles) to the southeast.
Earlier this year, Ascot reported that this year's resource expansion drilling discovered high-grade gold mineralization at Day Zone, which is located roughly 300 meters west of the Big Missouri deposit and about 5,000 meters north of the Premier mill.
Highlighted intercepts from the first three holes at Day Zone include:
• 4.1 meters averaging 20.62 g/t gold in hole P20-2212.
• 2.05 meters averaging 54.6 g/t (1.76 ounces per metric ton) gold in hole P20-2213.
Another four holes drilled at Day Zone has connected this high-grade gold mineralization to the Big Missouri deposit.
Highlights from this latest batch of Day Zone assay results include:
• 3.62 meters averaging 16.59 g/t gold in hole P20-2217.
• 5.6 meters averaging 15.31 g/t gold in hole P20-2245.
"It is very exciting that we continue to hit mineralization in every drill hole in this area," said Ascot Resources President and CEO Derek White. "The new drill holes have connected the west side of the ridge to the known resources at the Big Missouri deposit that are included in our feasibility mine plan."
The intercept in P20-2217 is within 100 meters of Big Missouri and P20-2245 cut gold mineralization about midway between Day Zone and Big Missouri.
The other two holes in the recent batch of assays – P20-2215 and P20-2216 – encountered gold mineralization in the area around holes P20-2212 and P20-2213.
The mineralization in all four of these holes dips to the east, while P20-2217 and P20-2245 appears to have a dip more akin to Big Missouri. Ascot says this difference in dip direction suggests the presence of faulting and possible block rotation which will require additional investigation to be fully understood.
The company is awaiting the assay results from another nine of the 16 holes it drilled this year at Day Zone.
With every Day Zone hole reported so far encountering gold mineralization, Ascot says it is clear that this resource expansion area so close to Premier infrastructure will be a priority target for follow up work in 2021.
"There is high potential to expand the mineralization to the north and south and add additional resources close to planned underground infrastructure which could ultimately extend the mine life at Premier," said White.
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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