The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2024 - January 15, 2025
Banyan drilled roughly 21,000 meters in 87 holes, revealing the robust gold mineralization at AurMac.
In 2024, Banyan expanded its AurMac resource to an impressive seven million ounces of gold.
Following a productive 2023, Banyan Gold Corp. launched a focused exploration program at the AurMac project in Yukon, Canada, expanded its resource estimate by another million ounces, and began laying the groundwork for the future of this emerging gold project.
Located in Yukon's prolific Tombstone Gold Belt, AurMac is a highly prospective property situated 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Mayo and 356 kilometers (221 miles) from Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon.
Covering 173 square kilometers (67 square miles), AurMac benefits from existing infrastructure, including road access, a three-phase power line, and cell coverage, making it well-positioned for ongoing exploration and development.
Setting the tone for the year, Banyan announced an updated mineral resource estimate in February, raising AurMac's total contained gold to 7 million ounces.
"With the AurMac resource now at 7 million ounces; 6.2 million ounces in the Powerline deposit alone, we can focus on delineating higher-grade zones, increase the confidence in the resource and further de-risk the project," said Banyan Gold President and CEO Tara Christie.
According to the latest calculation, AurMac – which saw the consolidation of the Powerline and Aurex Hill deposits into a single, expansive deposit – now holds 312.2 million metric tons of inferred resource at Powerline, averaging 0.61 grams per metric ton (6.16 million oz) gold, and 35.2 million metric tons of inferred resources at Airstrip, averaging 0.75 g/t (845,000 oz) gold.
With the inferred resource added to its project, the company began its 2024 season in stride, focusing on enhancing its resource confidence and potentially extending mineralization.
Originally slated for 5,000 meters between two rigs, the objectives for the 2024 program at AurMac included infill drilling of higher grade near surface areas within the Powerline zone; testing mineralized structures and lithological horizons controlling the east-west grade continuity within Powerline; test areas identified for potential infrastructure; and target an extension of previously defined gold mineralization at Airstrip, which had not been drill tested since 2020.
In 2024, Banyan expanded its AurMac resource to an impressive seven million ounces of gold.
Ultimately, Banyan continued to see promising results, as drilling greatly exceeded expectations, boosting drill meterage to approximately 21,000 meters. Preliminary results validated the company's strategic drilling methodology; highlights included:
• 197 meters averaging 0.72 g/t gold from a depth of 10.5 meters in hole AX-24-524.
• 184.3 meters averaging 0.6 g/t gold from 24.9 meters in AX-24-522.
• 138.7 meters averaging 0.52 g/t gold from 6.1 meters in AX-24-519.
• 111.4 meters averaging 0.52 g/t gold from 45.5 meters in AX-24-521.
• 154.1 meters averaging 0.58 g/t gold from surface in hole AX-24-542.
"The 2024 definition drilling program at AurMac, has intersected multiple instances of high-grade gold veins, exceeding 11 g/t gold and up to 539 g/t," said Christie. "These East-West oriented vein sets align with the direction of continuity of the structurally controlled Powerline gold mineralization."
Banyan complemented its drilling efforts with an expanded metallurgical program designed to optimize gold recoveries across the AurMac project. Building on phase-one tests that demonstrated recoveries of up to 91% through conventional methods, including carbon-in-pulp, carbon-in-leach, flotation, and heap leaching, the 2024 program focused on refining these processes to enhance efficiency and economic feasibility.
The latest studies evaluated grind sizes, reagent rates, and gravity recovery while also exploring pre-concentration techniques and assessing the potential for heap leaching. These advancements provided critical insights into processing efficiency and laid the groundwork for future economic evaluations, reinforcing the project's long-term viability.
In addition to advancing its exploration and metallurgical programs, Banyan also conducted scoping-level engineering and environmental baseline studies to support future economic assessments and permitting processes for AurMac.
This work included groundwater investigations, surface water quality monitoring, and hydrological and meteorological data collection.
Leveraging insights from neighboring operations like Hecla Mining Company's Keno Hill, these efforts aim to build a robust environmental framework to support future permitting and economic evaluations.
"The increased drill density realized through this year's work will improve the interpretation of the quantity, distribution and thickness, of these high-grade gold veins and their significance within the framework of the Powerline Gold mineralization, which is in turn expected to result in refinements to the primary structural controls of the deposit," added Christie. "The successful 2024 AurMac exploration program, combined with record high gold prices, have strategically positioned Banyan for a resource update, preliminary economic assessment; and, importantly, has provided clear exploration and definition drill targets for 2025.
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