The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Gold hit in all of the first 16 holes between Keg and Lucky North of 60 Mining News – January 29, 2021
An open pit from 1990s era mining along the Keg resource area at Golden Predator's Brewery Creek gold mine project.
Golden Predator Mining Corp. Jan. 25 reported that all of the first 16 holes reported from the 2020 drill program at its Brewery Creek mine project in the Yukon cut significant thicknesses of gold mineralization.
According to a calculation published in August, Brewery Creek hosts 22.2 million metric tons of indicated leachable resource averaging 1.11 grams per metric ton (789,000 ounces) gold, plus 16.8 million metric tons of inferred leachable resource at 0.92 g/t (497,000 oz) gold.
The project also hosts 30.6 million metric tons of inferred sulfide resource at 0.84 g/t (828,000 oz) gold, which will be considered for mining in later phases of Brewery Creek operation.
The mineral resource estimate and associated geological model confirms that the 2019 drilling at Brewery Creek connected the Fosters, Canadian, Kokanee and Golden deposits into a 3,500-meter-long pit shell that has been renamed Keg.
The 2019 drilling also indicated that a 400-meter gap between eastern edge of Keg and the western limits of Lucky deposit is well mineralized and oxidized but requires increased drill density to calculate a resource in this area that could extend the Keg gold mineralization by a further 1,000 meters to the northeast. Golden Predator says the area between these zones has been offset by a high-angle fault and was previously untested until 2019.
This gap was the target of 32 reverse circulation holes completed by Golden Predator during a 3,706-meter 2020 drill program that got underway at the end of September.
Highlighted intercepts from the first 16 holes of this program include 12.19 meters averaging 1.9 g/t gold from a depth of 76.2 meters in hole RC20-2683; 9.14 meters of 2.02 g/t gold from a depth of 6.1 meters in hole RC20-2687; 10.67 meters of 1.3 g/t gold from a depth of 4.57 meters, and 15.24 meters of 1.63 g/t gold from a depth of 36.58 meters in hole RC20-2688; and 7.62 meters of 2.28 g/t gold from a depth of 54.86 meters in hole RC20-2692.
Golden Predator says nine of the first 16 drill holes reported are located outside of the current Keg resource area and the remaining seven are located on the eastern margin of the resource.
In addition to confirming the Keg-Lucky connection, the 32 holes drilled aim to upgrade inferred resources at the margins of these deposits to the indicated category.
The 2020 Brewery Creek drill program consisted of exploration, in-fill, geotechnical, hydrogeologic and metallurgical drilling to advance the Bankable Feasibility Study currently underway and projected for completion in Q1/21. A total of 32 infill reverse circulation drill holes totaling 3,706 meters were completed in the gap area between the eastern edge of Golden and western edge of Lucky.
The overarching goal of Golden Predator's 2020 work at Brewery Creek is to provide information for a bankable feasibility study for the restart of mining operations there, which are expected to be completed before the end of March.
Assays are pending from 16 additional resource expansion holes drilled between the Keg and Lucky deposits.
In addition to the resource expansion drilling, Golden Predator carried out exploration drilling at the Classic area, a porphyry target south of the primary mineralized trend at Brewery Creek and outside the scope of the pending feasibility study.
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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