The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
New zone tapped with drilling southeast of current resource North of 60 Mining News – January 28, 2022
Night drilling at Skeena Resources' Eskay Creek gold-silver mine project in Northern British Columbia.
Skeena Resources Ltd. Jan. 26 reported that drilling is expanding the recently discovered 23 Zone, a significant zone of near-surface, footwall style mineralization that lies outside the current mineral resources at the company's Eskay Creek gold-silver project in British Columbia's Golden Triangle.
The discovery of 23 Zone was first reported by Skeena earlier this month when the company reported initial results from drilling there. Highlights from the previously reported 23 Zone holes include:
• 90 meters averaging 0.99 grams per metric ton gold and 6.5 g/t silver from a depth of 22 meters in hole SK-21-945.
• 43.4 meters averaging 1.3 g/t and 31.4 g/t silver from a depth of 29 meters in hole SK-21-946.
• 59.9 meters averaging 2.14 g/t gold and 14.6 g/t silver from a depth of 44.6 meters in hole SK-21-947.
The latest batch of results includes additional mineralization encountered with step-out drilling in this zone, including:
• 52 meters averaging 0.58 g/t gold and 14 g/t silver from a depth of 40.5 meters in hole SK-21-963.
• 40.5 meters averaging 1.97 g/t gold and 3 g/t silver from a depth of 72 meters in hole SK-21-971.
• 7.5 meters averaging 3 g/t gold and 4 g/t silver from a depth of 116.7 meters in hole SK-21-973.
Lying immediately southeast of the planned open pit at Eskay Creek, 23 Zone has the potential to add to the current surface mineable resources.
According to a calculation completed early last year, Eskay Creek hosts 37.65 million metric tons of open-pit minable measured and indicated resources averaging 4.2 grams per metric ton (3.76 million ounces) gold and 82.8 g/t (100.3 million oz) silver; plus 5.24 million metric tons of open-pit inferred resource averaging 1 g/t (174,000 oz) gold and 25 g/t (4.2 million oz) silver.
This resource serves as the basis for a prefeasibility study that details an open pit mine at Eskay Creek that would produce 2.45 million oz of gold and 79.9 million oz of silver over a ten-year span from 26.4 million metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 3.37 g/t gold and 94 g/t silver.
The ongoing regional exploration drill program at Eskay Creek is designed to pragmatically test near-surface targets across the property with the goal of delineating additional near-surface resources to supplement the existing mine plan. So far, roughly 12,890 meters of this regional exploration drilling has been completed, which represents roughly 37% of the budgeted 35,000-meter program.
Of the 72 regional exploration holes drilled so far, assays remain pending for 28. The outstanding meterage for the regional exploration program will be drilled once Skeena completes drilling of the Albino Waste Facility during the second quarter of this year.
The drilling completed at the Albino Waste Facility indicates that the waste and tailings stored in this underwater storage have gold and silver grades comparable to the current resource.
More information on the drilling completed at Albino can be read at Steady high grades in Eskay Creek waste in the December 10, 2021 edition of North of 60 Mining News.
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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