The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Surpasses initial 3 million goal and is testimony to diligence North of 60 Mining News – May 20, 2022
A brilliant display of the Aurora Borealis in the night sky over Banyan Gold's AurMac property in Yukon, Canada.
Click picture to see larger map.
After its initial maiden resource estimate in 2020, Banyan Gold has been determined to expand the resource at its AurMac property in the Yukon to more than 3 million ounces of gold, after extensive exploration consisting of large systematic step-out drilling the company has blown well over that mark, achieving nearly 4 million ounces on this northern Canada mine.
Located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Victoria Gold Corp.'s Eagle Gold Mine and adjacent to Alexco Resource Corp.'s Keno Hill Silver District, AurMac initially hosted 52.58 million metric tons in the inferred resource category averaging 0.54 grams per metric ton (903,945 ounces) gold in its flagship deposits – Powerline and Airstrip.
Powerline previously hosted 6.58 million metric tons in the inferred resource category averaging 0.61 g/t (129,019 oz) gold, while Airstrip accounted for the bulk of the project's resource at 46 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.52 g/t (774,926 oz) gold, according to the maiden resource calculation in 2020.
As of May 17, three deposits at AurMac contain 3.99 million oz of gold in the inferred mineral resource category.
"This resource estimate demonstrates the value generated by Banyan with 40,000 metres of drilling adding over 3 million ounces of inferred mineral resources," said Banyan Gold President and CEO Tara Christie. "All three deposits are open, with mineralization known to extend beyond the current block model boundaries."
The three deposits include Airstrip and Powerline, however the third, Aurex Hill, never had its resources added to the calculation.
Aurex Hill covers a roughly 10-square-kilometer (2,471 acres) area defined by a large, coincident gold- and arsenic-in-soil geochemical anomaly. Over 12,500 meters of historical rotary air blast drilling from 442 shallow holes, along with 15 diamond drill holes, have been completed at Aurex Hill.
Historically, the drill hole database for Aurex Hill is comprised of 241 holes, of which only 26 have been drilled by Banyan since 2017.
While it has been added to the latest mineral resource, Banyan has taken its systematic 100-meter step-out approach to Powerline, foreseeing it as being the major backbone to the most recent estimate, a determination that was well worth the laborious effort.
According to the most recent resource estimate, Airstrip hosts 42.5 million metric tons of pit-constrained inferred resource averaging 0.64 g/t (874,000 oz) gold; Powerline hosts 152 million metric tons of pit-constrained inferred resource averaging 0.59 g/t (2.9 million oz) gold; and Aurex Hill with 12.5 million metric tons of pit-constrained inferred resource averaging 0.53 g/t (215,000 oz) gold.
Banyan states that its mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.2 g/t gold for Airstrip and Powerline, while Aurex Hill is measured at a 0.3 g/t gold cut-off.
"Examining the Airstrip and Powerline mineral resource model highlights their robust nature; when the cut-off grades are increased by 50%, to 0.3 g/t, just 10% of the ounces are reduced; while the grade increases by 20% to an average of 0.72 g/t," added Christie. "We are confident the 30,000 metres that the company plans to drill in 2022 will meaningfully continue to build upon this resource estimate."
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