The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2022 - January 19, 2023
Logging core from the 2022 drilling at Dolly Varden's Kitsault Valley silver-gold project in Northern British Columbia.
A drill tests Torbrit, the largest deposit on the Dolly Varden end of the Kitsault Valley silver-gold project in Northern BC.
With C$26 million (US$20 million) in its treasury following the closing of a C$13 million (US$10 million) financing backed by Eric Sprott and Hecla Mining Company, Dolly Varden Silver Corp. launched a 37,061-meter drill program at its Kitsault Valley silver-gold project in Northern British Columbia.
"With strategic and technical input from our supportive corporate shareholder, Hecla Mining, it is our goal to make new silver and gold discoveries as well as to dramatically grow and upgrade resource at our current deposits, setting the company up to be the next development project in the Golden Triangle," said Dolly Varden Silver President and CEO Shawn Khunkhun.
Located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of Stewart, BC, the 63-square-mile (163 square kilometers) Kitsault Valley project is an amalgamation of Dolly Varden's namesake project and the adjacent Homestake Ridge gold-silver project the company acquired from Fury Gold Mines Ltd.
Four deposits associated with past producing mines at Dolly Varden– Torbrit, Dolly Varden, Wolf, and North Star – host 3.42 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 299.8 grams per metric ton (32.93 million oz) silver; plus 1.29 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 277 g/t (11.45 million oz) silver.
About 5.5 kilometers (3.5 miles) northwest of the Dolly Varden deposits, three deposits at Homestake Ridge host 736,000 metric tons of indicated resource averaging 7.02 g/t (165,993 oz) gold and 74.8 g/t (1.8 million oz) silver; plus 5.55 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 4.58 g/t (816,719 oz) gold and 100 g/t (17.8 million oz) silver.
The company kicked off its 2022 drilling at Torbrit, the largest deposit on the Dolly Varden end of the Kitsault property.
DV22-283, the first hole reported from the 2022 program, cut 50.18 meters (roughly 30 meters true-width) averaging 414 g/t silver at Kitsol, a vein-hosted, high-grade silver system located immediately northwest of the Torbrit resource.
Dolly Varden says hole DV22-283, which is a 25-meter step-out along strike and down dip of a high-grade silver zone, suggests that thickness and grade of the Kitsol Vein is increasing at depth.
Highlights from additional drilling at Kitsol Vein and the Torbrit deposit include:
• 12.51 meters (8.8 meters true-width) averaging 442 g/t silver in hole DV22-291 at Kitsol.
• 21.55 meters (10.8 meters true-width) averaging 372 g/t silver in hole DV22-298 at Kitsol.
• 8.34 meters (6.6 meters true-width) averaging 297 g/t silver in hole DV22-308 at Torbrit.
• 3.3 meters (3.3 meters true-width) averaging 585 g/t silver in hole DV22-312 at Torbrit.
Adding to the intrigue, Dolly Varden's 2022 drilling indicates a potential connection between the Torbrit and Wolf deposits, which lie about 1,400 meters apart.
Wolf, the second largest of the Dolly Varden deposits, hosts 402,000 metric tons of indicated resource averaging 296.8 g/t (3.8 million oz) silver; plus 9,500 metric tons of inferred resource averaging 230.6 g/t (70,000 oz) silver.
This 2022 step-out drilling, however, indicates that Wolf could rival Torbrit as the largest deposit.
Hole DV22-300, which tested the down-dip extension of Wolf, cut 19.85 meters (13.9 meters true-width) averaging 584 g/t silver, 0.56% zinc, 0.92% lead, and 0.19 g/t gold. A 1.6-meter (1.12 meters true width) bonanza-grade subsection of this intercept averaged 4,326 g/t silver, 1.36% zinc, 4.21% lead, and 1 g/t gold.
The strength of the Wolf mineralizing system continues to increase at depth.
This higher-grade silver mineralization at Wolf is trending southeast toward Kitsol Vein, a northwest extension of Torbrit, the largest of the four Dolly Varden deposits.
"With an established plunge length of over 500 meters from the historic underground workings, we are continuing to step out along this trend towards the Kitsol Vein, where we recently announced similar, high-grade mineralization over 1,400 meters away," said Khunkhun. "The increasing gold and base metal content, in addition to the silver, is highly encouraging, as well as the significant widths that are potentially amenable to bulk underground mining techniques."
In addition to drilling, Dolly Varden's 2022 program included ground geophysics along the 5,400-meter exploration area between Wolf and the Homestake Ridge deposit to the north and geological mapping along the entire 15-kilometer prospective corridor encompassed by its consolidated Kitsault Valley silver-gold project.
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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