The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2023 - January 18, 2024
11 billion metric tons of measured, indicated, and inferred resources have been outlined so far in five deposits at KSM.
Of the roughly 300 holes drilled at 3 Aces prior to Seabridge's acquisition, 27% returning more than 8 g/t gold.
Carrying forward a two-decade legacy of building gold resources faster than issuing shares, Seabridge Gold Inc. focused its 2023 exploration primarily on the Iskut gold-copper property in Northern British Columbia and high-grade 3 Aces project in the Yukon.
Going into 2023, Seabridge had 170.8 million ounces of gold in resources and reserves, a 997% growth since 2003. Over that same span its outstanding shares have only increased by 195%.
Along with this gold, Seabridge has 819.5 million oz of silver, 54.6 billion pounds of copper, and 1.15 billion lb of molybdenum in the various resource and reserve categories.
By far the largest portion of these metals are found at KSM, an enormous project at the heart of BC's Golden Triangle.
According to an early 2022 calculation, KSM hosts 5.4 billion metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 0.51 grams per metric ton (88.3 million oz) gold, 0.16% (19.4 billion lb) copper, 2.4 g/t (414 million oz) silver, and 63 parts per million (742 million lb) molybdenum; plus 5.7 billion metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.36 g/t (65.6 million oz) gold, 0.28% (35.1 billion lb) copper, 2.2 g/t (406 million oz) silver, and 33 ppm (415 million lb) molybdenum.
A 2022 prefeasibility study detailed a mine capable of averaging more than 1 million oz of gold, 3 million oz of silver, 178 million lb of copper and 4.2 million lb of molybdenum annually for 33 years from open pit deposits, primarily Mitchell and Mitchell East.
The 2022 PFS only accounts for mining about 25% of the overall resource.
A supplemental preliminary economic assessment outlines plans for underground block-cave mining that would extend the life of KSM for 39 years beyond the operation outlined in the PFS.
In May, Seabridge secured US$150 million (C$201 million) to carry out the work required to elevate KSM to the "substantially started" status, which will ensure the longevity of the environmental assessment certificate for the project.
This cash infusion comes under a royalty agreement between Seabridge subsidiary, KSM Mining ULC and Sprott Resource Streaming and Royalty Corp.
Among the tasks to be completed with the money raised is a switching station and other work needed to connect KSM to BC Hydro's Northern Transmission Line.
"Access to this green energy will substantially enhance KSM's sustainability and carbon profile," said Seabridge Gold Chairman and CEO Rudi Fronk. "Proceeds from the royalty agreement will also allow us to continue providing significant work for companies owned and managed by our Indigenous partners in the KSM project, an important ESG objective."
Seabridge believes it's on the cusp of discovering a KSM-esque deposit at Iskut, a project about 30 kilometers (19 miles) to the west.
In May, the company launched a 19,500-meter drill program at Iskut that included 23 holes to test targets with the hallmarks of a large gold-rich porphyry.
The area tested is near Johnny Mountain, a 1980s-era mine that produced gold, silver, and copper from high-grade skarns.
Prior to Seabridge's acquisition, 187 million metric tons of measured and indicated resource averaging 0.36 g/t gold and 0.12% copper have been outlined by a previous explorer at the Bronson Slope target at Johnny Mountain, and Seabridge's drilling has identified the potential for deeper and larger gold-copper porphyry deposits.
This potential was further affirmed in SGS-22-05, a 2022 drill hole that cut 288.5 meters averaging 0.7 g/t gold, 0.28% copper, and 4.1 g/t silver.
The 2023 drilling at Iskut, however, began at Snip North, a lower elevation target that may be part of a larger porphyry copper-gold system.
"At Snip North, we have extensive evidence of copper-gold mineralization in historical drilling and deep penetrating geophysical surveys," Fronk said at the launch of the 2023 drill program.
This geophysical evidence includes regional magnetotelluric (MT) geophysical surveys show a distinct structural feature that connects Bronson Slope, Quartz Rise, and Snip North. All the recognized mineral occurrences at Iskut are interpreted as high-level expressions of copper-gold porphyry systems aligned along this regional structural trend, which shows similar characteristics to the cluster of porphyry systems Seabridge has defined at KSM.
As the season matured and snow melted, the company moved its drilling upslope to further test this trend.
In addition to exploration, Seabridge continued a multi-million-dollar project to restore the Johnny Mountain Mine site on the Iskut back to its natural state.
Though the complete state of disrepair at Johnny Mountain was from mining carried out three decades earlier, Seabridge launched remediation efforts immediately after its 2016 acquisition of Iskut.
Working in partnership with the Tahltan Nation, Seabridge has been investing heavily into full reclamation of the historical Johnny Mountain mine site, which is slated for completion in 2025.
Targeting a KSM lookalike at Iskut, the company launched a roughly 7,700-meter drill program at 3 Aces, a road-accessible project that covers 357 square kilometers (138 square miles) of high-grade gold discoveries in southeastern Yukon.
Seabridge, which acquired 3 Aces from Golden Predator Mining Corp. in 2020, said the target concept for this high-grade project is consistent with some of the largest and richest gold deposits in the world, including the California Mother Lode Belt and the Juneau Gold Belt in Southeast Alaska.
Historical work has identified a broad area of gold-in-soil anomalies extending more than 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) along strike, and drilling had identified several gold-rich zones in the Central Core area of the property.
Of the roughly 300 holes drilled at 3 Aces prior to Seabridge's acquisition, 37% cut grades exceeding 5 g/t gold, with 27% returning more than 8 g/t gold.
The 2023 program, the first full year of drilling for Seabridge, included 27 holes targeting four zones – Spades, Hearts, Hearts West, and Clubs – that have shown consistently better gold values due to second-generation folding.
Essentially, 3 Aces stratigraphy has created an ideal trap for gold-bearing fluids to become stuck within quartz veins.
"Our team has been refining our new model and checking its concepts against field observations," Fronk said at the onset of the program. "They believe this model will provide the basis to integrate past and current drill results into meaningful zones of mineralization."
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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