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Seabridge Gold (TSX: SEA; NYSE: SA) is drilling at its 100%-owned Iskut property in the hopes of making new copper-gold porphyry discoveries in British Columbia’s Golden Horseshoe. Iskut is located only 20 km from the company’s massive KSM copper-gold project.
The initial work will be on the Snip North target and expand to the Bronson Slope target. Three helicopter-borne drills are on site, and two additional units will arrive in coming weeks. The program calls for 12 to 15 diamond drill holes totaling at least 12,000 metres.
The company says regional geophysical surveys and surface geology continue to confirm a district-scale structural feature that connects the Quartz Rise, Bronson Slope and Snip North targets. All the recognized mineral occurrences at Iskut are interpreted as high-level expressions of copper-gold porphyry systems aligned along this regional structural trend. The trend has similar characteristics to the one that hosts a cluster of porphyry systems Seabridge has defined at the KSM project.
“We are excited to get our program started early in the field season after last year’s success at Iskut,” Seabridge chair and CEO Rudi Fronk said in a release. “At Snip North, we have extensive evidence of copper-gold mineralization in historical drilling and deep penetrating geophysical surveys. As the season matures and snow melts, we’ll move upslope, following a pronounced regional structural tend, to continue work below the Bronson Slope target.
“Our team is enthusiastic that both these targets are new copper-gold rich porphyry systems. In addition, we think there is significant potential to expand the existing Bronson Slope mineral resource,” he added.
The Iskut property covers 22,238 hectares straddling the Iskut River in the Pacific Coast range about 110 km east of Stewart, BC. Seabridge acquired the property in 2016 when it made an all-share offer for SnipGold.
Last year, the company drilled the Bronson Slope and received assays of 0.28 g/t gold and 0.34% copper over 446.2 metres, 0.70 g/t gold and 0.29% copper over 188.5 metres, 0.52 g/t gold and 0.24% copper over 286.3 metres, and 0.43 g/t gold and 0.21% copper over 341.6 metres.
Bronson Slope has an NI 43-101 compliant indicated resource of 187 million tonnes grading 0.36 g/t gold and 0.12% copper.
