Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
Seabridge Gold (TSX: SEA) (NYSE: SA) confirmed on Tuesday that last year’s drill program at the 100% owned Snowstorm project in northern Nevada has achieved its key objective: to find a gold-bearing system hosted within similar rocks and structural setting as the Turquoise Ridge mine.
The Snowstorm property is located 15 km north of Turquoise Ridge on an extension of the prolific Getchell Trend. Although the gold grades to date are very low, Seabridge’s exploration team is increasingly confident that these new drill results can be used to vector towards higher grades.
In total, 4,495 metres of exploration drilling have been completed at Snowstorm since the most recent program began in mid-September 2020.
“When we acquired Snowstorm, we knew it would require a multi-year exploration program. The first drill program in 2019 met its objective as we were able to confirm the structural setting and rocks similar to those that host the Turquoise Ridge deposit,” Seabridge CEO Rudi Fronk said in a press release.
“The aim of the second recently completed program was to find gold and pathfinder elements such as arsenic within the type of structures identified as gold-bearing at Turquoise Ridge. This objective was also accomplished,” Fronk said.
4,495 metres of exploration drilling have been completed at Snowstorm since the most recent program began in mid-September 2020
According to Fronk, the latest drill campaign “has been an exercise in patience” in part because the target strata lie under a thick package of young volcanic rocks.
The 2020 program was designed to test magnetotelluric (MT) structures in an unexplored area east of previous exploration drilling. The drilling was planned to deliver definitive data on whether the MT structures represented pathways for gold-bearing fluids.
Two holes tested a shallow dipping geophysical target near multiple converging northeast and northwest trending fault zones. A third angled hole was designed to cross a northeast structure and test the same shallow dipping geophysical target. The fourth hole tested a large low resistivity anomaly, hanging wall to the shallow dipping geophysical response and into the core of an interpreted fold.
Seabridge is now evaluating how to use these promising results to find possible concentrations of gold similar to other Getchell occurrences. A new drill program is scheduled to begin in July 2021.
Following Tuesday’s announcement, Seabridge’s stock rose 4% by noon EST on the TSX, giving the Canadian gold miner a market capitalization of C$1.6 billion.
