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Banyan Gold has released diamond drill results from the Airstrip target at its 92 sq. km Aurex-McQuesten project which increase the zone’s strike length to over 1 km.
Drill highlights include:
“Combined historic and contemporary drilling indicates that the consistent, daylighting and approximately 90 metre thick prospective lithological package is preferentially mineralized with gold in excess of 1 km of strike length and up to 350 metres down dip. The Airstrip zone is open to the east, west and to depth,” Tara Christie, the company’s president and CEO said in the release.
Additional assays are pending for the Powerline target, located 1 km south of the Airstrip area.
The company has identified five intrusion-related styles of gold-silver mineralization at the project.
Initial metallurgical testing on McQuesten mineralization via cyanide shake tests suggests recoveries on the order of 68% with potential for heap leaching.
Banyan currently plans to deliver a maiden resource for Aurex-McQuesten in the second quarter of this year.
Banyan has the option to earn up to a 100% interest in the Aurex property from a subsidiary of Victoria Gold and up to a 100% interest in the McQuesten property from Alexco. The Aurex-McQuesten project is adjacent to both Alexco’s Keno Hill silver district and Victoria Gold’s Eagle mine. Banyan consolidated this land package back in 2017 and amended the option agreement earlier this year.
Beyond Aurex-McQuesten, the company’s other asset, also in the Yukon, is the 186 sq. km 100% owned Hyland Gold project which features near-surface mineralization. Current indicated resources there stand at 8.6 million tonnes grading 0.85 g/t gold for a total of 236,000 oz. with additional inferred resources of 10.8 million tonnes grading 0.83 g/t gold for a total of 288,000 oz. This deposit lies within a prospective 18-km long structural trend and is open for expansion.
(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)
