The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Sampling, geophysics identifies new areas for 2022 drilling North of 60 Mining News – March 25, 2022
Eskay Mining Corp. March 21 announced that analysis of soil and rock chip sampling, coupled with results from an expanded aerial transient electromagnetic geophysical survey, has defined numerous new drill targets in three focus areas on the company's Consolidated Eskay gold-silver project in Northern British Columbia.
"In 2021, we collected critical data including soils, rock chip samples, and an expanded SkyTEM survey over three targeted areas: the greater TV-Jeff region, C-10-Vermillion-Spearhead and Scarlet Ridge," said Eskay Mining Vice President of Exploration John DeDecker. "With this data now fully in hand, we are very confident we will make further discoveries with the drill bit in 2022. This will be the most important year yet for Eskay Mining."
Covering a corridor of volcanogenic massive sulfide gold mineralization trending south from Skeena Resources Ltd. Eskay Creek gold-silver project to north, and lying between Seabridge Gold Corp.'s KSM project to the east and Garibaldi Resources Corp.'s Nickel Mountain project to the west, Eskay's project lies at the heart of some of the richest real estate in BC's Golden Triangle.
"We control a huge property right in the middle of the most important part of the Golden Triangle," DeDecker added. "Our potential for further precious metal rich VMS discoveries is very strong given we control about 85% of the Eskay Trough, the geologic corridor favorable for Eskay Creek type deposits."
Most of the 98 holes drilled by Eskay last year targeted TV (38 holes) and Jeff (41 holes), emerging deposits along the VMS trend.
Highlights from the 2021 drilling at TV include:
• 92.3 meters averaging 1.1 grams per metric ton gold and 124 g/t silver in hole TV21-54, including 44.4 meters averaging 1.5 g/t gold and 236 g/t silver.
• 40.7 meters averaging 2.6 g/t gold and 65.5 g/t silver in hole TV21-56, including 8.3 meters averaging 7.6 g/t gold and 201.6 g/t silver.
• 140.3 meters averaging 0.9 g/t and 123.2 g/t silver in hole TV21-63, including 47.8 meters averaging 1.9 g/t gold and 287.4 g/t silver.
• 238.9 meters averaging 1.43 g/t gold and 73.6 g/t silver in hole TV21-67, including 11.9 meters averaging 117.3 meters averaging 2.39 g/t gold and 129.9 g/t silver.
• 81.6 meters averaging 0.82 g/t gold and 171.3 g/t silver in hole TV21-71, including 9.3 meters averaging 0.8 g/t gold and 1,090 g/t silver.
Highlights from the 2021 drilling at Jeff include:
• 3.7 meters averaging 6.9 g/t gold and 16.6 g/t silver in hole J21-46, including 1.1 meters averaging 17.8 g/t gold and 40 g/t silver.
• 3.9 meters averaging 17.56 g/t gold and 20.8 g/t silver in hole J21-57, including 1.9 meters averaging 33.86 g/t gold and 20.81 g/t silver.
• 4.8 meters averaging 3.13 g/t gold and 171.1 g/t silver in hole J21-58, including 0.5 meters averaging 17.6 g/t gold and 1,400 g/t silver.
• 26.4 meters averaging 1.91 g/t gold and 27.6 g/t silver in hole J21-64, including 4.9 meters averaging 4.94 g/t gold and 24.8 g/t silver.
• 8.5 meters averaging 7.9 g/t gold and 17.1 g/t silver in hole J21-77, including one meter averaging 59.7 g/t gold and 127 g/t silver.
Eskay says eight of the new drill targets are along strike of the TV and Jeff, as well as in a new area west of TV-Jeff that has been named Excelsior.
"On the heels of a very successful 2021 drill campaign, we are now very pleased to see our 2021 surface sampling results generate strong anomalies indicating we have lots more targets to explore," said Quinton Hennigh, a technical advisor and director of Eskay Mining. "At TV-Jeff, eight strong targets are evident from soils and SkyTEM data. Not only do we see strong anomalies along strike from TV and Jeff, areas to the west of TV-Jeff on the western limb of the Eskay Anticline also light up suggesting mineralization continues there."
In addition to the new targets identified in the TV-Jeff and associated Excelsior area, Eskay says soil sampling has generated five significant geochemical anomalies at C10-Vermillion-Spearhead, which lies about eight kilometers (five miles) to the southeast.
In addition, high-grade gold and silver mineralization was returned from two rock chip samples of VMS mineralization identified at Vermillion – 12.7 g/t gold and 322 g/t silver, and 14.9 g/t gold and 21.2 g/t silver.
Hennigh says these anomalies clearly indicate more work is needed in the Vermillion area.
After compiling and analyzing data from exploration carried out by Granges Inc. from 1989 to 1991, Eskay has confirmed the potential for precious metals-rich VMS mineralization at Scarlet Ridge, which is about 15 kilometers (nine miles) northeast of TV-Jeff.
Included in this data are results from rock chip sampling and 18 shallow diamond drill holes widely scattered along a 4,000-meter-long northeast corridor.
Assays reported from the historical rock chip samples include 56.59, 20.20, 15.38, 12.20, and 10.73 g/t gold; and 390.4, 308.8, 216.7, 179.1, and 149.1 g/t. Written descriptions of these samples indicate they are characterized mineralization similar to Eskay Creek, TV-Jeff and other VMS deposits in this region.
Granges reported rock chip samples with gold grades as high as 56.6 g/t and silver grades as high as 390.4 g/t.
The best reported historical drill intercepts include 9.8 meters of 1.38 g/t gold and 8.84 g/t silver in hole AP17; 2.9 meters of 2.01 g/t gold and 16.35 g/t silver in hole AP18; and 3.5 meters of 1.14 g/t gold and 38.49 g/t silver in hole AP14.
While historical in nature, Eskay believes these results indicate the prospective nature of Scarlet Ridge and plans to re-examine areas explored by Granges and undertake aggressive surface exploration work early in the 2022 field season to refine drill targets at Scarlet Ridge for testing later during season. Scarlet Ridge clearly has very good potential for hosting VMS deposits.
"At Scarlet Ridge, our team was able to track down 1989-91 vintage rock chip and shallow drill hole data that provides strong evidence of precious metal rich VMS mineralization in that area," said Hennigh. "With just ten weeks left before kick-off of the 2022 season, our crews our now busily planning diamond drilling and follow up surface exploration. We expect 2022 to be a very good year for Eskay Mining."
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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