The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Further affirms the underground mining potential at Lawyers North of 60 Mining News - October 11, 2023
This year's drilling has cut strong gold mineralization below the open-pit mine proposed for the Dukes Ridge deposit.
The natural topography offers easy underground access to the deeper portions of the Dukes Ridge and Cliff Creek deposits.
Thesis Gold Inc. Oct. 11 reported deep drilling at Lawyers continues to cut intervals of high-grade gold-mineralization within broader zones below the proposed open-pit at Dukes Ridge, further supporting a plan for both underground and open-pit mining at this gold-silver project in Northern British Columbia's Toodoggone Mining District.
Earlier this year, Thesis finalized a merger with Benchmark Metals Inc. that consolidates the adjacent Lawyers and Ranch gold-silver projects into a single district-scale asset.
A preliminary economic assessment completed for Benchmark in 2022 envisioned ore from open-pit mines at three Lawyers deposits – AGB, Cliff Creek, and Dukes Ridge – feeding a centrally located mill that would produce 1.7 million ounces of gold and 26.7 million oz of silver over an initial 12 years of mining.
This PEA is based on 67.38 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 1.26 grams per metric ton (2.74 million oz) gold and 24.39 g/t (52.9 million oz) silver; plus 4.87 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 2.39 g/t (378,000 oz) gold and 39.41 g/t (6.2 million oz) silver.
Post-PEA optimization studies indicate that underground mining below the Dukes Ridge and Cliff Creek pits could significantly improve the economics of the proposed operation at Lawyers.
Thesis is currently in the midst of a 50,000-meter drill program that includes roughly 20,000 meters of drilling to delineate underground resources at Lawyers and 30,000 meters to establish resources that could add high-grade ore to the proposed mine.
Earlier this year, Thesis reported assays from the first three deep holes at Duke Ridge; highlights include:
• 45 meters averaging 1.03 g/t gold and 51.5 g/t silver from a depth of 376 meters in hole 23DRDD001.
• 68 meters averaging 1.25 g/t gold and 65.7 g/t silver from a depth of 370 meters in hole 23DRDD002.
• 53 meters averaging 2.12 g/t gold and 105 g/t silver from a depth of 388 meters in hole 23DRDD003.
The latest batch of assays is from nine additional holes drilled at Lawyers.
The best intercepts came in hole 23DRDD011, which cut two zones of high-grade gold mineralization:
• 46 meters averaging 2.29 g/t gold and 132.1 g/t silver from a depth of 325 meters, including a 1.36-meter subsection averaging 24.7 g/t gold and 953 g/t silver (Upper Zone).
• 37 meters averaging 2.09 g/t gold and 85.3 g/t silver from a depth of 392 meters, including a 0.82-meter subsection averaging 54.33 g/t gold and 3,027 g/t silver (Lower Zone).
High-grade zones remain open to the southeast, indicating further potential to extend mineralization along strike in the deeper parts of the Dukes Ridge deposit.
"The Dukes Ridge deposit continues to exceed our expectations, continuing to grow significantly at depth," said Thesis Gold President and CEO Ewan Webster. "These results are very encouraging for the planned 2024 resource update and new PEA in Q2 and Q3, respectively. So far, we've drilled over 37,000 metres of our company's planned 50,000-metre season."
The latest results from the drilling on the adjacent Ranch property can be found at Thesis taps 6.3m of 14.9 g/t gold at BV in the Sept. 29, 2023 edition of North of 60 Mining News.
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.
Reader Comments(0)