The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2023 - January 18, 2024
Thesis Gold CEO Ewan Webster inspecting core from the 2023 drilling at the Ranch gold-silver project in Northern BC.
The August merger of Benchmark Metals Inc. and Thesis Gold Inc. consolidates two very promising gold-silver properties in Northern British Columbia's Toodoggone Mining District into a single 325-square-kilometer (125 square miles) land package with near term mining and longer term exploration potential that will likely attract the attention of majors.
"This merger has given rise to an expansive district-scale development and exploration endeavors, characterized by remarkable potential for growth," said Thesis Gold President and CEO Ewan Webster.
The most advanced of the projects in Thesis Gold's merged portfolio is Lawyers, a 144-square-kilometer (56 square miles) land package brought to the merged company by Benchmark that hosts 67.38 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 1.26 grams per metric ton (2.74 million ounces) 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.
A 2022 preliminary economic assessment based on this resource envisions 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 oz of gold and 26.7 million oz of silver over an initial 12 years of mining.
Lying immediately north of Lawyers, Thesis' 180,000-square-kilometer (69 square miles) Ranch property is at an earlier stage of exploration but has shown some intriguing near-surface gold results.
During 2021 and 2022, drilling at Ranch has outlined a 1,500-meter-long corridor of near-surface mineralization with grades as high as 17.5 g/t gold over 33 meters.
Thesis' 2023 program included roughly 50,000 meters of drilling – 30,000 meters at Ranch and 20,000 meters at Lawyers – that would support an operation that was larger and with more exploration potential than was outlined in the Lawyers PEA.
Optimization studies indicated that underground mining at Lawyers could significantly improve the economics of the operation outlined in the PEA.
The 2023 drilling on the Lawyers property focused on realizing this optimization potential by testing the deep high-grade gold and silver extensions below the proposed open pits at Cliff Creek and Duke's Ridge.
"Drilling at Lawyers was planned to maximize this approach with the possibility to access higher-grade material earlier in the mine schedule, optimize the strip ratio for open pits, and enhance the resource estimates for an updated project study, said Webster.
It did not take long to confirm the underground expansion potential at Lawyers.
Highlights from the first three holes at Lawyers include:
• 68 meters averaging 1.25 g/t gold and 65.7 g/t silver in hole 23DRDD002.
• 53 meters averaging 2.12 g/t gold and 105 g/t silver in hole 23DRDD003.
• 46 meters averaging 2.29 g/t gold and 132.1 g/t silver in hole 23DRDD011.
• 37 meters averaging 2.09 g/t gold and 85.3 g/t silver in hole 23DRDD011.
"The Dukes Ridge deposit continues to exceed our expectations, continuing to grow significantly at depth," said Webster.
It also did not take long to further confirm Ranch's potential to offer high-grade feedstock to an expanded operation on the merged land package.
The 2023 resource drilling at Ranch primarily targeted the 1,500-meter-long Thesis Structural Corridor, the 700-meter-long Bonanza-Ridge zone to the north, and smaller BV zone to the south.
"Our primary focus is to complete our 30,000-metre program, aimed at establishing a maiden resource and emphasizing high-grade zones with potential for early mining," said Webster.
Highlights from early assays results from the 2023 drilling at Ranch include:
• 4.1 meters averaging 119.49 g/t gold in hole 23BNZDD001 (Bonanza-Ridge).
• 12.6 meters averaging 3.87 g/t gold in hole 23BNZDD004 (Bonanza-Ridge).
• 6.1 meters averaging 5.39 g/t gold in hole 23BNZDD013 (Bonanza-Ridge).
• 6.3 meters averaging 14.87 g/t gold in hole 23BVDD001 (BV Zone).
• 10.8 meters averaging 2.32 g/t gold in hole 23BVDD003. (BV Zone).
"Bonanza is certainly living up to its name with hole one," Webster said upon the October release of drill assays that included hole 23BNZDD001.
Alteration and gold pathfinder mineralization at the Ring zone, which lies about 650 meters southeast of BV, suggests further expansion potential in this area of the Ranch project.
"These results provide a robust foundation for this emerging trend, reaffirming our confidence in the Ranch Projects capacity to significantly contribute to our overarching strategy of building a unified Toodoggone district," Webster added.
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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