Banyan Gold connects AurMac deposits

With another fruitful year of systematic drilling, a stressful wildfire, the successful expansion of its resources swelling to more than six million ounces, and the accomplishment of a several-year-long goal of connecting two of its more advanced-exploration deposits, Banyan Gold Corp. has shown that persistence is a key ingredient to a successful exploration project.

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 road-accessible AurMac project hosts three deposits – Powerline, Airstrip, and Aurex Hill.

According to a calculation completed in May, Airstrip hosts 41.2 million metric tons of pit-constrained inferred resource averaging 0.68 grams per metric ton (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.

"This mineral resource update is an increase of over 2 million ounces or over 50% from the 2022 MRE," said Banyan Gold President and CEO Tara Christie. "This was accomplished with 50,000 metres of drilling completed in a single season."

The largest growth to its resource came from Aurex Hill, which grew from 215,000 oz in 2022, to nearly 1.5 million oz last year.

Since acquiring the properties in 2017, Banyan has expanded on the initial targeting of Airstrip, identified and expanded the over 2,500-meter-wide by 1,000-meter-long Powerline deposit, added Aurex Hill to its most recent MRE, and connected the final 250 or so meters remaining of untested area from the roughly 1,200 meters between Powerline and Aurex Hill – all while growing the property to a multi-million-ounce property.

Kicking off its 2023 exploration program in early March, Banyan aimed to link its Powerline and Aurex Hill properties with a sizable program of roughly 25,000 meters. Replicating its proven method of systematic 100-meter step-out drilling, toward the end of July the company announced it had finally accomplished its goal of filling in the gaps – and it certainly paid off.

Highlights from drilling the gap between the two deposits included:

• 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.

"Confirmation that AurMac gold mineralization is continuous between Powerline and Aurex Hill was an important goal of our Phase 1 drill program," said 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."

Essentially completing phase one of its 2023 drill program, the company came close to its targeted meterage, however, much like many other mining operations in northern Canada, processing and logging of core on site was delayed by various factors, one of which were the wildfires that closed highway access.

Despite this, Banyan wrapped up drill core processing by mid-September and had all samples shipped to the lab. As the end of the year typically creates backlogs, results may be rolling in sometime in the next few weeks.