The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - January 22, 2025
Drilling has outlined a 2,000-by-600-meter porphyry copper-gold mineralization at the Snip North target on Seabridge Gold's Iskut project in British Columbia's Golden Triangle.
Drilling has discovered distinct zones of gold (green) and copper (orange) mineralization at Snip North.
Seabridge Gold Inc. Jan. 21 reported that its 2024 drilling at Iskut has outlined a large area of porphyry copper-gold mineralization at the Snip target that the company plans to define with resource definition drilling this year.
"This discovery will be our key exploration focus in 2025, working to delineate a mineral resource as quickly as practical," said Seabridge Gold Chairman and CEO Rudi Fronk.
Seabridge believes Iskut could host multiple porphyry copper-gold systems similar to what the company has defined at its world-class KSM project about 30 kilometers (19 miles) to the east and sees the definition drilling at Snip North as an opportunity to gain a better understanding of the geology as seeks to unlock the project's larger potential.
"Our expectation is that building resources on Snip North in 2025 will provide critical knowledge transferable elsewhere on the Iskut Property where we see multiple centers with potential for additional discoveries of Cu-Au porphyry systems," Fronk added.
So far, three porphyry centers have been discovered at Iskut – Bronson Slope, Quartz Rise, and Snip North.
Bronson Slope, the most advanced of the three, hosts 517.3 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.09% (1.06 billion pounds) copper, 0.33 grams per metric ton (5.4 million ounces) gold, and 2.7 g/t (45 million oz) silver.
Quartz Rise is located about 5,000 meters to the southeast, and Snip North is located about the same distance to the northwest of the Bronson Slope deposit.
A roughly C$12 million (US$8.8 million) exploration program carried out last year at Iskut primarily targeted Snip North.
In October, Seabridge reported that the first three holes of its 2024 program at Snip North cut thick ones of strong copper-gold mineralization indicative of a nearby porphyry intrusive source. Highlights include:
• 302.9 meters averaging 0.75 g/t gold, 0.1% copper, 3 g/t silver, and 52 parts per million molybdenum from a depth of 373 meters in hole SN-24-17.
• 478 meters averaging 0.49 g/t gold, 0.13% copper, 1.5 g/t silver, and 84 ppm molybdenum from a depth of 87 meters in hole SN-24-18.
• 531.5 meters averaging 0.48 g/t gold, 0.1% copper, 1.2 g/t silver, and 69 ppm molybdenum from a depth of 125 meters in hole SN-24-20.
The six remaining holes continued to define copper and gold mineralization over extensive widths. Highlights include:
• 234 meters averaging 0.61 g/t gold, 0.16% copper, 1.3 g/t silver, and 79 ppm molybdenum from a depth of 14.6 meters in hole SN24-09.
• 320.4 meters averaging 0.48 g/t gold, 0.09% copper, 1.1 g/t silver, and 89 ppm molybdenum from a depth of 3.3 meters in hole SN-24-15.
• 342 meters averaging 0.42 g/t gold, 0.05% copper, 1.2 g/t silver, and 19 ppm molybdenum from a depth of 499 meters in hole SN-24-16.
• 382 meters averaging 0.45 g/t gold, 0.15% copper, 5.2 g/t silver, and 64 ppm molybdenum from a depth of 18 meters in hole SN-24-19.
• 187.1 meters averaging 0.33 g/t gold, 0.18% copper, 1.3 g/t silver, and 99 ppm molybdenum from a depth of 94 meters in hole SN-24-23.
Drilling has discovered distinct zones of gold (green) and copper (orange) mineralization at Snip North.
This and previous drilling have outlined thick zones of copper-gold mineralization over a 2,000-by-600-meter area. Two distinct styles of mineralization – a high-temperature potassic copper-gold domain interpreted as proximal to an intrusive source; and a gold-silver domain indicative of a more distant and lower temperature intermediate sulfidation epithermal system.
"Our excitement for this discovery is enhanced by the fact that we have not yet found the intrusive source of the mineral system discovered last year," said Fronk.
With the 2024 drill program providing some vectors to work with, Seabridge is developing a drill program focused on both establishing a maiden resource at Snip North and targeting the yet undiscovered intrusive source.
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)