The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News – April 26, 2024
Dolly Varden plans to complete 25,000 meters of resource expansion and exploration drilling during the initial phase of its 2024 program at its Kitsault Valley gold-silver project in Northern B.C.
The 2023 drilling at Kitsault Silver will test a newly identified high-grade gold zone and potential connection to Kitsault Main.
The 2023 drilling at Wolf will test the southerly plunge of mineralization.
Dolly Varden Silver Corp. April 23 outlined plans for an initial roughly 25,000-meter drill program this year at Kitsault Valley that will include resource expansion and exploration drilling on this 163-square-kilometer (63 square miles) gold-silver project about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Stewart, British Columbia.
Kitsault Valley project is comprised of two adjacent properties – the Dolly Varden silver property on the south end and the more gold-enriched Homestake Ridge property to the north.
Four deposits associated with past-producing mines on the Dolly Varden end of Kitsault Valley – Dolly Varden, Torbrit, North Star, and Wolf – host 3.42 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 299.8 grams per metric ton (32.93 million ounces) silver; plus 1.29 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 277 g/t (11.45 million oz) silver.
Homestake Ridge, which lies 5.4 kilometers (3.4 miles) northwest of Wolf, hosts three deposits – Homestake Main, Homestake Silver, and South Reef – with 736,000 metric tons of indicated resource averaging 7.02 g/t (165,993 oz) gold and 74.8 g/t (1.8 million oz) silver; plus 5.55 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 4.58 g/t (816,719 oz) gold and 100 g/t (17.8 million oz) silver.
The initial phase of Dolly Varden's 2024 drill program will be split roughly evenly between the Homestake Silver deposit area, Wolf deposit area, and project-wide exploration targets with discovery potential.
This program is expected to begin by following up on the success of last year's drilling at Homestake Silver.
Highlights from 2023 Homestake Silver drilling include:
• 93.95 meters averaging 1.74 g/t gold and 213 g/t silver in hole HR23-416, including 9.16 meters averaging 13.16 g/t gold and 3,085 g/t silver.
• 79.2 meters averaging 2.57 g/t gold and 102 g/t silver in hole HR23-419, including 9.22 meters averaging 9.53 g/t gold and 718 g/t silver.
• 12.45 meters averaging 79.49 g/t gold and 60 g/t silver in hole HR23-389, including 0.68 meters averaging 1,335 g/t gold and 781 g/t silver.
"Our drill results from Homestake Silver were among the highest-grade gold and silver intercepts anywhere in the Golden Triangle in 2023; our priority with this early start is to continue with step-outs as well as infill drilling to confirm continuity of the potentially bulk-mineable mineralization," said Dolly Varden CEO Shawn Khunkhun. "Further south, silver mineralization at Wolf remains wide open for expansion and this seasons' introduction of directional drilling technology will allow for highly accurate placement of drill intercepts."
Wolf Vein remains open to depth, where results from 2023 drilling indicate an increase in zinc and lead content, as well as wider epithermal breccia vein silver mineralization.
Hole DV23-375, drilled into this Wolf deposit expansion area, cut 27 meters averaging 296 g/t silver, 3.01% zinc, and 1.68% lead.
The drilling this year will target the width and extent of the southerly plunge of wider and higher-grade silver mineralization.
Dolly Varden will implement directional drilling technology with the objective of more cost-effective and accurate exploration at Wolf, particularly for deep holes.
The company's exploration program will include drilling at Moose Vein, where one hole drilled last year cut silver mineralization similar to Wolf about 1.5 kilometers (nearly one mile) to the south. This hole, DV23-371, cut one meter averaging 712 g/t silver.
The exploration drilling will also test other buried geophysical targets found along the 5.4-kilometer (3.4 miles) gap between Wolf and Homestake Silver.
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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