The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Two targets part of one resource, may suggest larger orebody North of 60 Mining News – July 21, 2023
Powerline (left orange) and Aurex Hill (right orange), with the untested portion (light blue) in between, was the bulk of Banyan's 2023 drill program. Click to see larger map.
The light blue portions were the areas that were undrilled by Banyan; the yellow dots were reported assays, while the red dots are pending. Click to see larger map.
Banyan Gold Corp. July 19 announced the results from the latest 25 drill holes from its ongoing 2023 exploration program at the company's AurMac property in Yukon, Canada, establishing that gold mineralization is continuous between Powerline and Aurex Hill – a goal Banyan has been pursuing for the past couple of years.
"Confirmation that AurMac gold mineralization is continuous between Powerline and Aurex Hill was an important goal of our Phase 1 drill program," said Banyan Gold President and CEO Tara Christie. "All these reported drill holes are post the 2023 6.2 million ounce gold resource update and are additive to the overall mineral resource of the property validating management's position there remains room to grow this on and near surface deposit."
Located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Victoria Gold Corp.'s Eagle Gold Mine and adjacent to Hecla Mining Company's Keno Hill Silver District, the Aurex and McQuesten properties, or AurMac, is comprised of three deposits – Powerline, Airstrip, and Aurex Hill.
According to the most recent calculation, Airstrip hosts 41.2 million metric tons of pit-constrained inferred resource averaging 0.68 grams per metric (897,000 oz) gold; Powerline hosts 197.4 million metric tons of pit-constrained inferred resource averaging 0.61 g/t (3.84 million oz) gold; and Aurex Hill hosts 74.3 million metric tons of pit-constrained inferred resource averaging 0.6 g/t (1.45 million oz) gold.
With the distance shortening between Powerline and Aurex Hill, these two targets are growing closer to a single large body that will keep Banyan occupied for years to come.
Kicking off its program at the beginning of March, which planned for roughly 25,000 meters with three rigs, so far, the company has completed nearly all their targeted drilling for the year – with 100 drill holes in over 23,400 meters.
Focusing about 80% of its exploration drilling on Powerline and Aurex Hill, with the remaining 20% to be done on possible new targets, the goal of 2023 was closing the gap on these two highly prospective targets.
With more or less 250 meters of untested area to connect the dots of Powerline and Aurex Hill, the systematic 100-meter step-out drilling has narrowed down this impressive project and painted the picture of a substantial resource.
Highlights from drilling the gap between the two deposits include:
• 37.4 meters averaging 0.82 g/t gold from a depth of 103.4 meters in hole AX-23-415.
• 28 meters averaging 0.81 g/t gold from 80.5 meters, and 18.5 meters averaging 2.22 g/t from 182 meters in AX-23-429.
• 53.8 meters averaging 0.81 g/t gold from 194.5 meters in AX-23-436.
• 17.1 meters averaging 1.44 g/t gold from 141.3 meters in AX-23-451.
All 25 holes reported in this batch of assay results cut gold mineralization in multiple intercepts along the length of the core.
Assays from more than half of the holes drilled at AurMac this year remain pending. With the current batch of assays achieving the main priority of the year – connecting Powerline and Aurex Hill – the outstanding holes drilled along the eastern margins of Aurex Hill and targets further east are icing on the golden cake for Banyan.
"The areal extent of AurMac's interpreted gold mineralization continues to be expanded with each batch of assay results received," said Christie.
Banyan is currently planning the second phase of 2023 exploration at AurMac.
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