Skeena Resources drills new precious metals zone at Eskay Creek

Skeena Resources (TSX: SKE; NYSE: SKE) has discovered what it says is a significant near-surface, footwall-style zone of mineralization, the 23 zone, at the Eskay Creek gold-silver project in British Columbia.

Drilling highlights from the recent discovery  include the following:

• Hole SK-21-945: 90 metres grading 0.99 g/t gold and 6.5 g/t silver (1.08 g/t gold-equivalent);
• Hole SK-21-946: 43.4 metres at 1.3 g/t gold and 31.4 g/t silver (1.72 g/t gold-equivalent); and
• Hole SK-21-927: 59.9 metres at 2.14 g/t gold and 14.6 g/t silver (2.33 g/t gold-equivalent).

The new zone is outside the pit-constrained resources at the project, located in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia. It lies about 200 metres east of the high-grade 21A zone and mineralization begins about 15 metres below surface. The area was tested during historical drilling, but the 23 zone was missed. The zone remains open in all directions.

Skeena also drilled the 22 zone and Eastern Limb targets in the fourth quarter of 2021. Hole SK-21-927 intersected 21.6 metres assaying 3.39 g/t gold and 4.8 g/t silver (3.45 g/t gold-equivalent) about 200 metres southeast of the 22 zone. That intersection contains two higher grade intersections: 0.7 metre at 59.1 g/t gold and 61.5 g/t silver (59.92 g/t gold-equivalent) and 0.95 metre at 19.55 g/t gold and 7.4 g/t silver (19.65 g/t gold-equivalent). No significant grades were returned from the Eastern Limb.

The newly released assays come from Skeena’s 35,000-metre drill program to test near surface targets across the property. To date, 72 holes have been drilled for a total of 12.890 metres. The program will be completed after drilling at the Albino waste facility is completed in the second quarter of this year.

The property hosts the former Eskay Creek mine that produced 3.3 million oz of gold and 160 million oz. of silver from 1994 to 2008.

(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)