The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Is excited about high-grade gold drilled just east of the mill North of 60 Mining News – December 17, 2021
Drilling has encountered high-grade gold at Sebakwe, a new zone about 600 meters east of the mill on Ascot Resources' Premier Mine project in Northern British Columbia.
The two holes drilled at Sebakwe indicate this zone could be a repeat of the historically mined Premier and Northern Light structures, which continue to host substantial indicated (red) and inferred (yellow) gold resources.
Ascot Resources Ltd. Dec. 15 announced that drilling has encountered high-grade gold in the Sebakwe zone, which may be an unmined structure immediately north of the Northern Light and Premier zones on the company's Premier gold mine project near Stewart, British Columbia.
Located immediately east of the Premier mill, the Sebakwe zone remains largely undrilled due to the steep terrain where it is located. With geological and geophysical evidence suggesting that Sebakwe could represent a yet-to-be-mined structure similar to the Northern Light and Premier zones, which were historically mined and host resources for future mining at Premier, Ascot drilled two holes into the zone.
"Given the similarities to the structurally controlled Premier and Northern Light deposits adjacent to the south, our hypothesis is that Sebakwe could potentially be a third repeat of the same structure," said Ascot Resources President and CEO Derek White.
Highlights from this drilling include:
• One meter averaging 29.6 grams per metric ton gold and 5.3 g/t silver from a depth of 328.5 meters in hole P21-2385.
• 7.1 meters averaging 36.17 g/t gold and 20.6 g/t silver from a depth of 368.3 meters in hole P21-2385.
• 0.9 meters averaging 39 g/t gold and 25.8 g/t silver from a depth of 324.5 meters in hole P21-2386.
"Given the sparse historical drilling, the mapped structural geometry, and the strong IP (induced polarization) signature, we knew Sebakwe was highly prospective for high-grade gold mineralization. However, we were still pleasantly surprised by the impressive result of 36.2 g/t over 7.1 meters, including two very high-grade sub-intervals grading over 100 g/t and containing coarse visible gold," said White.
Ascot's two Sebakwe holes targeted an area where drilling was carried out in the 1920s and 1930s but did not have accurate location or survey information. Combined, however, the historical and new holes seem to indicate Sebakwe represents a new structure that could add considerable gold to the near-mill resources at Premier.
The high-grade gold mineralization encountered in the 2021 holes was intercepted about 200 meters below the surface and at a similar elevation as the mill building, approximately 600 meters to the west.
The topography immediately above the Sebakwe Zone is very steep, and given the gradually increasing depth of the cover rock, this area was seldom drilled in the property's history. Given the exciting potential of outlining additional high-grade gold resources in this area next to current Premier infrastructure, Ascot will aim to establish additional drill platforms to test the strike and dip extent of the Sebakwe zone during 2022.
"While we only completed two drill holes at Sebakwe this year, the results were outstanding and this zone will be followed up on in a much more meaningful way in next year's exploration program," 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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