Seabridge updates resource estimate for Mitchell and East Mitchell deposits

Seabridge Gold (TSX: SEA) (NYSE: SA) has updated the mineral resource for its Mitchell and East Mitchell deposits, incorporating results of drilling completed in 2021. The resource estimates will be used in a new preliminary feasibility study (PFS) on the KSM project, expected in June 2022, which will for the first time incorporate the East Mitchell deposit into KSM’s mine plans.

The Mitchell and East Mitchell are two of five deposits in Seabridge’s district-sized KSM project located in the Golden Triangle region of northwestern B.C. The East Mitchell deposit, formerly called Snowfield, was acquired in 2020 from Pretium Resources.

The combined open-pit resource for the two deposits now total 4.11 million tonnes grading 0.54 g/t gold, 0.13% copper, 2.4 g/t silver and 71 ppm molybdenum in the measured and indicated categories. There are also 1.56 million tonnes grading 0.30 g/t gold, 0.13% copper, 2.5 g/t silver and 50 ppm molybdenum in the inferred category.

Commenting on the mineral resource update, Seabridge chairman and CEO Rudi Fronk said: “We are very eager to see how this new resource estimate folds into our revised PFS.”

“We expect the combination of East Mitchell and Mitchell to create a single very large open-pit mining opportunity with improved economic projections including a likely increase in proven and probable gold reserves, better grades in the early years of production and deferral of the need to pay for capital intensive underground block-cave development,” Fronk added.

Prior to the update, the KSM project’s total measured and indicated resources stood at approximately 3.04 billion tonnes averaging 0.52 g/t gold, 0.21% copper, 2.8 g/t silver and 48 ppm molybdenum. Inferred resources were 4.6 billion tonnes averaging 0.38 g/t gold, 0.32% copper, 2.4 g/t silver and 29 ppm molybdenum.

Proven and probable reserves totalled 2.2 billion tonnes averaging 0.55 g/t gold, 0.21% copper, 2.6 g/t silver and 42.6 ppm molybdenum, for 38.8 million oz. of gold, 10.15 million lb. of copper, 183 million oz. of silver and 207 million lb. of molybdenum. These figures make Seabridge’s KSM one of the largest undeveloped gold projects in the world today.

The company recently closed a $225 million financing to advance the KSM project closer to construction. The funding was provided by Sprott Resource Streaming and Royalty and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

In early March, Seabridge announced it will use hydro-sourced electric power supplied by BC Hydro for the KSM project’s construction activities.