The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - May 23, 2024
A drill tests a target west of the North Star silver deposit at Kitsault Valley.
Dolly Varden Silver Corp. May 21 announced that it has three drills turning at Kitsault Valley, marking the company's earliest start ever at the gold-silver project about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Stewart, British Columbia.
"With drilling already underway, our 25,000-meter program is the earliest startup for of any season for Dolly Varden Silver and we look forward to building on resource expansion and high-grade mineralization discovered during the 2023 program," said Dolly Varden Silver CEO Shawn Khunkhun.
The Kitsault Valley project is comprised of two adjacent properties – the Dolly Varden Silver on the south end and the more gold-enriched Homestake Ridge immediately 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 25,000 meters of drilling planned for this year's initial phase is slated to be split roughly evenly between the Dolly Varden and Homestake properties.
Roughly a third of the 2024 drilling will follow up on the high-grade gold and silver drilled last year at Homestake Silver.
Highlights from 2023 Homestake Silver drilling include:
• 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.
• 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.
Another third of this year's drilling will expand Wolf, the northernmost of the Dolly Varden deposits outlined so far.
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.
The remaining third of this year's drilling will test other exploration targets across the wider Kitsault Valley property.
The 2024 program will begin by testing exploration targets.
Among the first exploration targets to be tested is Moose Vein, which lies about 1.5 kilometers (nearly a mile) north of Wolf.
One hole drilled at Moose last year (DV23-371) cut 7.55 meters averaging 269 g/t silver, including one meter averaging 712 g/t silver.
The 2024 drilling at Moose is targeting the down-plunge projection of the vein.
Chance Vein, which lies about one kilometer (0.6 miles) northwest of Moose, is another exploration target that is high on the docket for this year.
The first hole at Chance is testing the interpreted down-plunge projection of a 2019 hole (DV19-173), which cut 26.5 meters averaging 488 g/t silver, including 5.6 meters averaging 1,044 g/t silver.
A third rig has begun step-out drilling to the west of the North Star deposit.
North Star lies across the Kitsault Valley from the Torbrit, which hosts the largest silver resource on the Dolly Varden property.
This year's drilling at North Star will follow up on a 2023 hole (DV23-358), which cut 7.45 meters averaging 345 g/t silver.
Red Point, Ace Galena, Silver Hoard, and parallel trends at Homestake Ridge are other exploration targets Dolly Varden plans to drill this year.
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)