The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Auryn-Eastmain merger plans 25,000m drilling at BC project North of 60 Mining News – February 5, 2021
Fury plans to carry out 25,000 meters of resource upgrade and expansion drilling during a summer 2021 program at its Homestake Ridge gold-silver project in British Columbia.
Fury Gold Mines Ltd., which was formed as the result of the October merger of Auryn Resources Inc. and Eastmain Resources Inc., plans to complete 25,000 meters of drilling at Homestake Ridge, a high-grade gold-silver project in British Columbia's Golden Triangle.
Brought into Fury by Auryn, Homestake Ridge hosts an estimated 816,719 ounces of gold, 17.8 million oz of silver, 15.9 million pounds of copper, and 17.3 million lb of lead in three zones – Homestake Main, Homestake Silver and South Reef.
"The company has refined the geological model at Homestake Ridge and outlined the largest and most intensive drill campaign at the project to date," said Fury Gold Mines President and CEO Mike Timmins. "We have identified multiple high priority opportunities to expand the resource and discover additional high-grade gold and silver mineralization at the project."
Roughly 15,000 meters of Fury's expansive 2020 drill program will focus on expanding Homestake Main, the most advanced of the three deposits.
Homestake Main hosts 736,000 metric tons of indicated resource averaging 7.02 grams per metric ton (165,993 oz) gold, 74.8 g/t (1.8 million oz) silver, 0.18% (2.9 million lb) copper and 0.08% (1.3 million lb) lead; plus 1.75 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 6.33 g/t (355,553 oz) gold, 35.9 g/t (2 million oz) silver, 0.35% (13.3 million lb) copper and 0.11% (4.1 million lb) lead.
"The technical team sees a great deal of potential to expand the resource at Homestake Ridge based on the revised geological model of the deposit," said Fury Gold Mines Senior Vice President of Exploration Michael Henrichsen. "The technical team strongly believes in the discovery potential of new mineralized bodies along the deposit trend, that if successful, could considerably change the size of the project."
In addition to expanding Homestake Main, Fury plans to carry out approximately 10,000 meters of infill drilling aimed at upgrading portions of the inferred resource at Homestake Silver to the higher confidence indicated category.
Homestake Silver, which lies about 300 meters southeast of Homestake Main, hosts 3.35 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 3.13 g/t (337,013 oz) gold, 146 g/t (15.7 million oz) silver, 0.03% (2.2 million oz) copper and 0.18% (2.2 million lb) lead.
South Reef, which is about 1,000 meters south of Homestake Silver, hosts 445,000 tons of inferred resource averaging 8.68 g/t (124,153 oz) gold and 4.9 g/t (roughly 70,100 oz) silver, along with small amounts of copper and lead.
A preliminary economic assessment completed early last year outlined a 900-metric-ton-per-day mining operation at Homestake Ridge that would produce 590,000 gold-equivalent ounces over a 13-year mine life.
At a base case of US$1,350/oz gold and US$12/oz silver, the mine envisioned in the PEA is expected to generate an after-tax net present value (5% discount) of US$108 million and 23.6% internal rate of return.
At US$1,755/oz gold and US$16.50/oz silver, which are closer to current precious metals prices, the Homestake mine outlined in the scoping level study is estimated to generate an after-tax NPV (5% discount) of US$206 million and an IRR of 35.8%.
Being a relatively small underground operation, the PEA estimates that the pre-production capital costs to develop the mine to be only US$88 million (C$126 million), which includes a 15% contingency on all direct costs.
The 25,000-meter drill program hopes to expand on the resource used as the basis for this first look at mining the high-grade gold and silver at Homestake Ridge.
"Increasing the ounce profile at Homestake is a key component of our growth strategy and supports the continuous growth we offer to our shareholders," Timmins said.
In addition to Homestake Ridge, Fury's portfolio includes Committee Bay and Gibson MacQuoid, large Nunavut gold projects brought to the merger by Auryn, and Eau Claire and Éléonore South, gold exploration projects in Quebec.
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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