The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
V2 zone could add early high-grade gold ore to Goose Mine North of 60 Mining News – December 11, 2020
The aurora borealis lights up the sky over a drill carrying out late-season testing of gold zones at the Goose mine project on Sabina's Back River project in Nunavut.
Sabina Gold & Silver Corp. Dec. 9 released the final batch of results from the roughly 8,000 meters of drilling completed this year at the company's Back River gold project in Nunavut, Canada.
"Sabina is proud to have delivered a number of significant exploration successes this year," said Sabina Gold & Silver President and CEO Bruce McLeod. "This was accomplished while operating within a restricted safety framework that has protected our employees, contractors and community partners from COVID."
Much of this program targeted a high-grade underground corridor at the Umwelt V2 zone at Goose, one of the properties that comprise Sabina's larger Back River project. Highlights from previously released results from drilling at V2 include:
• 19.4 meters averaging 15.15 grams per metric ton gold in hole 20GSE571.
• 32.2 meters averaging 19.89 g/t gold in 20GSE575C.
• 20.6 meters averaging 16.59 g/t gold in 20GSE581.
• 22.8 meters averaging 14.78 g/t gold in 20GSE582.
• 24.8 meters averaging 14.78 g/t gold in 20GSE584.
Sabina said this confirmation of the emerging V2 zone will result in an updated reserve estimate for Goose and has provided the basis upon which to re-envision the Goose Mine development plans outlined in a 2015 feasibility study.
Under the 2015 study, ore mined from four deposits – Goose, Llama, Umwelt, and Umwelt Underground – would feed a 3,000-metric-ton-per-day mill forecast to produce an average of roughly 200,000 ounces of gold per year over an 11.8-year mine life.
This study was based on 28.2 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 5.87 g/t (5.33 million oz) gold; and 7.75 million metric tons of inferred resources averaging 7.43 g/t (1.85 million oz) gold.
Sabina will now investigate the potential of mining high-grade underground gold mineralization tapped in the V2 zone early in the mine life.
More information on the updated Goose Mine feasibility study can be read at Updated Goose gold mine study underway in the Dec. 4 edition of North of 60 Mining News.
In addition to testing V2, the 2020 program also included nine holes that tested five targets outside of the Umwelt high-grade corridor – Umwelt underground hinge zone, Llama Extension, Hook, Jackaroo, and Hackles.
At the Umwelt underground hinge target, which is outside of the main mineralizing corridor of the V2 zone, three holes successfully intersected mineralization over significant widths. One of these holes, 20GSE585, cut 43.7 meters averaging 3.74 g/t gold. Sabina says the wide zones of gold mineralization tapped in the Umwelt hinge target indicate additional resource growth opportunities.
The company also completed three holes at Llama Extension, an underground continuation of the Llama zone included in the 2015 feasibility study.
Hole 20GSE577, drilled to establish an initial inferred resource for the Llama Extension zone, cut 9.15 meters averaging 3.75 g/t gold.
The 2020 drilling also included one hole to test Hook, a potential bridging zone between the Goose Main and Nuvuyak deposits. This hole, 20GSE580, cut 13.7 meters averaging 1.9 g/t gold. While this hole was shallower than expected when it reached the target, it provided further information for future drill testing.
"Additional resource style drill holes at the Llama Extension target as well as internal work has enabled resource modelling for new inferred resources at both Llama Extension and Nuvuyak zones," said McLeod. "These two oncoming resources have the potential to form the foundation for future design of two new underground mines at the Goose site."
In addition to drilling, Sabina completed an extensive airborne geophysical versatile time domain electromagnetic (VTEM) survey over the Goose, George, and Del properties at Back River.
First phase 3D modelling of the 2020 VTEM data has been successful in calibrating results and characterizing key elements over known deposits, showing strong conductors centered on the Llama, Umwelt and Goose Main deposits.
Sabina says this modelling has led to the geophysical characterization of key known deposits enabling the evaluation through comparison and prioritization of new and previously identified geophysical anomalies. The second phase of modelling using deposit response characteristics is well advanced and will facilitate exploration targeting in 2021.
"With this year's challenges, our exploration targeting programs were restricted but we have created good momentum for successful follow up with the results from these drill holes," said McLeod. "In addition, the completion of a VTEM survey over some of the historically underexplored and high value portions of our Back River properties continues to demonstrate the prospectivity of this emerging mining belt. We look forward to planning our exploration priorities in 2021 as we continue to evolve the world class nature of the Back River Gold district."
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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