The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Company considers early mining of emerging high-grade zone North of 60 Mining News – January 14, 2022
Ascot's drilling is focused on discovering and expanding areas of high-grade gold mineralization close to existing and planned underground mine infrastructure at its Premier project.
Ascot Resources Ltd. Jan. 13 reported additional high-grade gold intercepts from 2021 drilling at the Day Zone, which lies adjacent to the Big Missouri deposit on the company's Premier gold mine project about 16 miles (25 kilometers) outside of Stewart, British Columbia.
Located at the southern tip of BC's Golden Triangle, Premier hosts 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 three deposits – Premier, Silver Coin, and Big Missouri.
Discovered during the 2020 field season, Day Zone has emerged as one of the most compelling targets for resource growth and potential mine life extension due to its high gold grades and proximity to Big Missouri.
Highlights from the 2020 discovery drilling at Day include:
• 4.1 meters averaging 20.62 g/t gold in hole P20-2212.
• 2.05 meters averaging 54.6 g/t gold in hole P20-2213.
• 5.6 meters averaging 15.31 g/t gold in hole P20-2245.
In November, Ascot reported that hole P21-2331, which tested an area of sparse geological information about 400 meters south of the 2020 drilling, cut 2.46 meters averaging 4.13 g/t gold and 3.5 g/t silver very close to a planned development drift that will connect the Big Missouri and Silver Coin deposits.
The latest batch of assays includes results from hole P21-2336, which cut 5.66 meters averaging 11.22 g/t gold and 19.1 g/t silver from the same pad.
P21-2384, also drilled at Day, cut 1.9 meters averaging 58.6 g/t gold and 24.8 g/t silver.
Given these high grades and proximity to planned development infrastructure, Ascot is considering moving Day earlier in the Premier mine plan.
"During the development phase at the Premier gold project our exploration strategy has been quite simple: find and expand new high-grade areas of mineralization close to existing and planned infrastructure which will be accretive to our mine plan. In that regard, the Day Zone continues to impress in each successive round of drilling, with this batch being headlined by an intercept of two ounces per tonne gold over two meters," said Ascot Resources President and CEO Derek White.
"Since its discovery in 2020, with a modest 32 drill holes we have already outlined a number of high-grade areas at the Day Zone across a known strike length of 550 meters, with mineralization open to the north and south," he added.
In addition to results from Day Zone, Ascot reported strong gold mineralization tapped at Boneyard, an expansion target west of the Northern Lights zone and very near the Premier Mill.
In August, the company reported that hole P21-2320 cut seven meters averaging 21.13 g/t gold, 110.6 g/t silver, 17.14% zinc, and 2.76% lead about 50 meters west of the Northern Lights resource.
The latest hole drilled in this area, now known as Boneyard, cut 4.8 meters averaging 5.48 g/t gold and 9.48 g/t silver.
Ascot says this demonstrates that Boneyard is another area with high potential to expand resources close to planned infrastructure.
Additionally, the company says assay results from 28 infill holes drilled at Big Missouri are beginning to roll in and will be released in the coming weeks as they become available.
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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