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Infill drilling at Skeena Resources’ past-producing Eskay Creek gold-silver mine in B.C.’s Golden Triangle has returned wide intervals of high-grade mineralization.
The company has reported diamond drill results for holes completed within the Hanging Wall (HW), 21B and 21C zones, completed as part of a second-phase drill program focused on resource conversion of pit-constrained resources for a prefeasibility study expected in the second quarter.
The HW zone returned a 25.3-metre interval of 11.56 g/t gold and 173 g/t silver (13.86 g/t silver-equivalent), 25 vertical metres below surface. This intercept includes higher-grade subintervals, such as 0.5 metre of 123.5 g/t gold and 1,920 g/t silver (149.1 g/t gold-equivalent) and is higher-grade and wider when compared against historical drill results from this area that formed the current resource estimate for this zone.
Current open-pit resources at Eskay Creek include 12.7 million indicated tonnes at 4.3 g/t gold and 110 g/t silver for a total of 1.7 million oz of gold and 44.7 million oz of silver
Notable intercepts from the 21C zone include 22.5 metres of 4.41 g/t gold and 5 g/t silver (4.48 g/t gold-equivalent) and 19 metres of 3.2 g/t gold and 242 g/t silver (6.42 g/t gold-equivalent). The latter intercept also includes 1 metre of 41.6 g/t gold and 4,390 g/t silver (100.13 g/t gold-equivalent).
Highlights from the 21B zone include 14 metres of 15.3 g/t gold and 80 g/t silver (16.37 g/t gold-equivalent).
Skeena has also completed a 5,000-metre near-mine exploration program at Eskay Creek – results are pending.
A resource update is expected this spring.
Current open-pit resources at Eskay Creek include 12.7 million indicated tonnes at 4.3 g/t gold and 110 g/t silver for a total of 1.7 million oz of gold and 44.7 million oz of silver. Additional inferred pit resources total 14.4 million tonnes at 2.3 g/t gold and 47 g/t silver for 1.1 million gold oz and 21.7 million silver oz.
A 2019 preliminary economic assessment on Eskay Creek outlined an open pit mine producing an average of 306,000 gold-equivalent oz. annually at all-in sustaining costs of $757 per oz.
Between 1994 and 2008, Eskay Creek produced 3.3 million gold oz. and 160 million oz. of silver from head grades of 45 g/t gold and 2,224 g/t silver.
(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)
