The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
More gold and silver positioned for upgrading to reserves North of 60 Mining News - June 20, 2023
The 2023 Eskay Creek mineral resource estimate incorporates an additional 278 holes drilled at the gold-silver project in BC.
Tables showing comparisons between the 2022 and 2023 open-pit measured and indicated resources at Eskay Creek.
Skeena Resources Ltd. June 20 announced an upgraded and expanded resource estimate for Eskay Creek that will likely convert into new reserves of gold and silver with an updated feasibility study for this Northern British Columbia mine project slated for completion before the end of this year.
According to the new calculation, Eskay Creek hosts 50.1 million metric tons of open-pit-mineable measured and indicated resources averaging 2.57 grams per metric ton (4.14 million ounces) gold and 63.6 g/t (102.5 million oz) silver; plus 643,000 metric tons of inferred resource averaging 1.46 g/t (30,000 oz) gold and 32.3 (668,000 oz) silver.
This marks a 257,000 oz increase in gold and a 7.9 million oz increase in silver reporting to the measured and indicated categories when compared to a resource calculation completed in 2022.
"With the outcome of an additional 432,000 gold equivalent ounces, we are very pleased with the continued resource growth at Eskay Creek," said Skeena Resources President and CEO Randy Reichert. "Given most of the resources included in this update are within the measured and indicated categories we expect a large percentage to convert to reserves, potentially adding a year or more of mine life to the Q4 2023 definitive feasibility study."
To allow for more detailed engineering and selective mining in the upcoming feasibility study, the resource blocks were reduced to 5- by 5- by 2.5-meters, which is half the 10- by 10- by 5-meter resource blocks previously applied to resource modeling at Eskay Creek.
A new methodology was also applied for buffering around underground stopes from previous mining carried out by Barrick Gold Corp. A one-meter buffer was applied to restrict the influence of previously mined extremely high-grade drill hole samples around the underground workings. The new methodology is a 15 g/t gold-equivalent cut-off, which is a more geology-based means of restricting the high grades.
"Considerable analysis was undertaken during this MRE (mineral resource estimate), which includes a new methodology for restricting the influence of high-grade mineralization proximal to formerly mined areas, optimization of block sizes for mining selectivity, and added conservatism with process recoveries derived from the 2022 FS (feasibility study)," said Skeena Resources Vice President of Exploration and Resource Development Paul Geddes.
The 2022 feasibility study detailed plans for an open pit mine at Eskay Creek that would produce 2.42 million ounces of gold and 66.7 million oz of silver from 29.9 million metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 2.99 g/t gold and 79 g/t silver.
The increased measured and indicated resources, coupled with the optimizations, are expected to result in larger reserves in the coming 2023 bankable feasibility study.
In addition to the open-pit resources, Eskay Creek hosts 1.83 million metric tons of underground measured and indicated resources averaging 4.66 g/t (274,000 oz) gold and 95.5 g/t (5.6 million oz) silver; plus 272,000 metric tons of underground inferred resources averaging 4.57 g/t (37,000 oz) gold and 25.4 g/t (222,000 oz) silver.
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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