The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Skeena investigates processing Snip ore at Eskay Creek mine North of 60 Mining News - September 6, 2023
Incorporating the results from an additional 307 holes drilled by Hochschild and Skeena, the Snip project in Northern BC now hosts 823,000 oz gold in the indicated resource category.
Skeena Resources Ltd. Sept. 5 announced a 237% increase in the amount of gold in the indicated resource category at its Snip project in British Columbia's Golden Triangle.
Located about 35 kilometers (22 miles) west of Eskay Creek, which has been the primary focus for Skeena, Snip is the home to a high-grade underground gold mine operated by Barrick Gold Corp. that produced 1.1 million ounces of gold from 1.25 million metric tons of ore averaging 27.5 grams per metric gold during the 1990s.
Since acquiring both past producing underground gold mines from Barrick, Skeena focused most of its efforts on reestablishing a modern open pit mine at Eskay Creek and optioned Snip to Hochschild Mining in 2021.
Hochschild decided earlier this year not to move forward with its option to earn a 60% interest in Snip, returning 100% interest to Skeena plus the data from C$15 million in exploration and other work the Peruvian mining company invested in the project.
Incorporating the results from 46,268 meters of drilling in 307 holes completed by Hochschild and Skeena since 2020, Snip now hosts 2.74 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 9.35 g/t (823,000 oz) gold and 499,000 metric tons of inferred resource averaging 7.1 g/t (114,000 oz) gold.
This is a significant increase in gold reporting to the higher confidence indicated category during a 2020 calculation.
In 2020, Snip hosted 539,000 metric tons of indicated resource averaging 14 g/t (244,000 oz) gold; and 942,000 metric tons of inferred resources averaging 13.3 g/t (402,000 oz) gold.
"With the successful conversion of over 570,000 gold ounces to the Indicated category, we are very pleased with the updated Mineral Resource Estimate for Snip," said Skeena Resources President and CEO Randy Reichert.
This expanded and upgraded resource will serve as the foundation for a detailed engineering study for a mine at Snip.
"The study will demonstrate the potential benefits of adding Snip mineralization to the Eskay Creek Project as a satellite operation, likely including an increased mine life and improved concentrate payabilities at Eskay Creek," Reichert added.
A 2022 feasibility study detailed plans for a mine at Eskay Creek that would produce 2.42 million oz 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.
Skeena, however, plans to update the feasibility this year based on a new calculation completed in June that adds 257,000 oz gold and 7.9 million oz of silver to the measured and indicated categories at Eskay Creek.
The increased measured and indicated resources are expected to result in larger reserves in the coming 2023 bankable feasibility study.
The addition of higher-grade gold from Snip could further enhance the economics of developing a mine at this project in BC's Golden Triangle.
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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