Canagold says gold resource up by 89% at Polaris project in British Columbia 

Drill core from New Polaris. Canagold photo

An updated mineral resource estimate (MRE) for Canagold Resources’ (TSX: CCM) flagship New Polaris gold project has been released by the company. The project is located approximately 100 km south of Atlin, British Columbia.

The MRE shows 3 million tonnes at 11.6 g/t gold for 1.1 million oz. contained gold in the indicated category, plus 930,000 tonnes at 8.93 g/t gold for 270,000 oz. contained gold inferred.

Highlights from the MRE are:

  • 89% increase in the indicated category contained ounces of gold compared to the 2019 preliminary economic assessment (PEA) resource due to a very successful 2021-22 infill drill program;
  • 23% increase to the overall resource tonnage due to the additional veins defined by the 2021-22 infill drilling that were integrated into the new geological model;
  • gold grade improvement by 8% in the indicated category to 11.61 g/t, up from 10.8 g/t in the 2019 PEA due to the refined geological model constrained by the additional drilling.

The updated 2023 MRE comes after the company completed an additional 40,000 metres of infill drilling, targeting areas of previously inferred category resource from the 2019 PEA. Using a gold price of $1,500/oz, the PEA indicated cash costs of $400/oz, an after-tax net present value (NPV with 5% discount) of C$469 million with an after-tax internal rate of return of 56%, and a 1.9 year pay-back period.

The property consists of 61 contiguous crown-granted mineral claims and one modified grid claim covering 850 hectares. New Polaris lies within the Taku River Tlingit First Nation traditional territory.

“Canagold’s 2021-22 exploration program has proved highly successful in reaching our primary objective of adding more gold ounces into the indicated category,” CEO Catalin Kilofliski said in a news release.

“The company’s goal has been to hit our target of more than one million ounces to feed into the feasibility study currently underway with Ausenco Engineering. Right now, we’re working with a potential mine plan that targets 100,000 ounces per year based on an approximately 10-year mine life and assuming the current drilling depth we’ve achieved to date,” Kilofliski added.