The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
First holes extend Kitsol vein; DV expands 2023 drill program North of 60 Mining News - August 9, 2023
Dolly Varden Silver is exploring a nine-mile-long prospective corridor that extends north from its namesake property to the gold-silver deposits at Homestake Ridge.
Click on image for larger Kitsol vein cross-section.
Dolly Varden Silver Corp. Aug. 8 reported that the first batch of assays from its 2023 drill program at Kitsault Valley has further extended silver mineralization on this precious metals-rich project in Northern British Columbia.
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.
Dolly Varden's 2023 drilling began at Torbrit and Kitsol Vein, a northwest extension of the Torbrit deposit.
Highlights from the first batch of assays from this drilling include:
• 8.32 meters averaging 297 g/t silver in hole DV23-334 (Kitsol), including 0.9 meters of 1,090 g/t silver.
• 18 meters averaging 342 g/t silver in hole DV23-336 (Kitsol), including 0.5 meters of 995 g/t silver.
• 9.57 meters averaging 496 g/t silver in hole DV23-337 (Kitsol), including 0.73 meters of 1,100 g/t silver.
• 3.5 meters averaging 334 g/t silver in hole DV23-348 (Torbrit), including 1.34 meters of 672 g/t silver.
Dolly Varden said holes DV23-334 and DV23-336 have extended the wide, high-grade silver mineralization at the Kitsol vein 40 meters toward the surface. Overall, this vein has been traced 250 meters. The most down-plunge hole, DV22-323, cut 15 meters averaging 301 g/t silver.
"As the flow of results from our fully funded 2023 exploration drill program have started, we continue to see successful resource expansion drilling at the Kitsol Vein, intersecting high-grade silver mineralization over wide intervals, that is potentially amenable to bulk underground mining methods," said Dolly Varden Silver President and CEO Shawn Khunkhun.
There are indications of a connection between Kitsol and Wolf, which lies about 1,400 meters to the northwest.
Exploration holes to the west, testing for new structures in the hanging wall of the Moose Lamb fault, encountered a block of the Kitsol vein in drill hole DV23-338 within a fault splay. Further modeling with the new oriented core data will guide targeting of a possible offset of the Kitsol vein across the Moose Lamb fault and in the direction of Wolf.
So far this year, Dolly Varden has drilled more than 70 holes at Kitsault Valley. Given the success and efficiency of this drilling, the company has expanded the program to 55,000 meters, which is 10,000 meters more than originally slated, without the need to expand the 2023 exploration budget.
"We are excited to have the fifth drill turning as it will allow us to allocate extra meters to exploration drilling on our priority list of targets along the Kitsault Valley trend," said Khunkhun.
To help refine drill targeting, a magnetotelluric geophysical survey is being carried out over post-mineralization sedimentary rocks that cover the center of Kitsault Valley. Additional surveys will be performed west and north of Homestake Ridge, where extensive gold in soil anomalies coincident with strong alteration suggest the potential for deeper structurally-controlled gold-silver mineralization at the Homestake Main and Homestake Silver deposits.
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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