By Cory댊
More High Grade Results from Skeena Resources at Eskay Creek
The headline number of 10.97 g/t AUEq over 42.65 meters is one of a three very nice drill holes released today from the Eskay Creek Project. These three holes are all in the 21A zone and are infill and the core is needed for upcoming metallurgical work. The Company released a resource last month for Eskay Creek (click here to read over that news) that showed almost 2 million ounces of high grade gold equivalent.
If you have any questions for the team at Skeena please email me at Fleck@kereport.com. I will be chatting with the President and CEO Walter Coles early next week.
…Here’s the news…
Skeena Intersects 10.97 g/t AuEq Over 42.65 metres at Eskay Creek
Vancouver, BC (October 10, 2018) Skeena Resources Limited (TSX.V: SKE, OTCQX: SKREF) (“Skeena” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce additional Au-Ag drill results for three drill holes from the ongoing Phase I surface drilling program at the Eskay Creek Project (“Eskay Creek”) located in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia. The multifaceted Phase I program is being performed in the historically drill defined 21A, 21C and 22 Zones. A cross section and tabled data are presented at the end of this release and on the Company’s website.
Eskay Creek Phase I Drilling Highlights
- 9.49 g/t Au, 111 g/t Ag, 10.97 g/t AuEq over 42.65 m (SK-18-009)
- Including: 17.35 g/t Au, 147 g/t Ag, 19.31 g/t AuEq over 19.65 m
- 5.93 g/t Au, 166 g/t Ag, 8.14 g/t AuEq over 36.25 m (SK-18-010)
- Including: 5.66 g/t Au, 296 g/t Ag, 9.61 g/t AuEq over 14.00 m
- 7.95 g/t Au, 140 g/t Ag, 9.82 g/t AuEq over 33.60 m (SK-18-011)
Gold Equivalent (AuEq) was calculated with the formula: Au (g/t) + [Ag (g/t) / 75]. Reported core lengths represent 80-100% of true widths and are supported by well-defined mineralization geometries derived from historical drilling. Length weighted AuEq composites were constrained by geological considerations as well as a calculated 1.0 g/t AuEq assay grade cutoff assuming reasonable prospects for economic extraction via open pit mining methods. Grade capping of individual assays has not been applied to the Au and Ag assays informing the length weighted AuEq composites. Processing recoveries have not been applied to the AuEq calculation and are disclosed at 100% due to a lack of supporting information. Samples below detection limit were nulled to a value of zero.
Phase I Drilling Discussion
The Phase I drilling program on the 21A, 21C and 22 Zones is designed to infill and improve definition in areas with low drill density to a drill spacing sufficient to allow for future economic analyses, and to collect fresh material for an upcoming metallurgical characterization and testing program. As no historical drill core remains for any zones at Eskay Creek, new material must be collected for this purpose. Overall, the metallurgical drilling program is designed to gather unbiased, representative material that is spatially distributed throughout the various zones that will ultimately be used to optimize future economic analyses.
The 21A Zone represents a significant portion of the pit constrained resources hosted at Eskay Creek, containing Indicated Resources of 207,000 oz AuEq grading 5.9 g/t AuEq and Inferred Resources of 418,000 oz AuEq grading 4.6 g/t AuEq.
Designed to infill an area of Inferred Resources, three drillholes were collared on section 10020N, all of which intersected continuous intervals of exhalative mudstone and footwall rhyolite hosted mineralization. Most notably, drillhole SK-18-009 intersected 9.49 g/t Au, 111 g/t Ag (10.97 g/t AuEq) over 42.65 metres including a subinterval within the mudstone averaging 17.35 g/t Au, 147 g/t Ag, (19.31 g/t AuEq) over 19.65 metres. Situated immediately downdip, Phase I drillholes SK-18-010 and SK-18-011 intersected 5.93 g/t Au, 166 g/t Ag (8.14 g/t AuEq) over 36.25 metres and 7.95 g/t Au, 140 g/t Ag (9.82 g/t AuEq) over 33.60 metresrespectively.
The 21A Zone continues to demonstrate excellent geological and grade continuity and will be further infill drilled during the continuing Phase I program to 20 metre drill spacings to upgrade Inferred Resources to the Indicated category. The 21A Zone is currently drill defined over a large area measuring 420 m along strike and 180 m down dip with true widths ranging from 1 to 80 m in thickness.
21A and 21B Zones – Analogous Mineralization Styles
The 21B Zone is geologically and geochemically equivalent to the 21A Zone and accounted for the bulk of mineralization historically mined at Eskay Creek. The 21B Zone occurs as a tabular, stratiform, fault bounded body characterized by well-bedded, reworked sulfides and sulfosalts interbedded with unmineralized, carbonaceous argillite (mudstone). In addition to the extremely high precious metal grades, Eskay Creek as a whole, particularly the 21A and 21B Zones, is distinguished from conventional VMS deposits by the association with elements of the epithermal suite (Sb-Hg±As). Elevated concentrations of Sb-Hg-As in the 21A and 21B Zones are not evenly distributed throughout the zones but rather occur as isolated clusters due to later stage localized, hydrothermal overprinting.
Although the bulk of the mined material was hosted in the contact mudstone, significant unmined mineralization exists in proximal feeder structures in the footwall rhyolites (21C and Pumphouse Zones). These zones differ geochemically from the 21A and 21B Zones in that they contain low levels of Sb-Hg-As as compared to those hosted in the contact mudstone.
21B Zone Historical Reconciliation
Underground mining at Eskay Creek was performed using the drift and fill mining method with run of mine material either milled at site to generate a concentrate or as direct shipping ore (“DSO”), to smelters. Due to the elevated concentrations of Sb-Hg-As in the 21B Zone, smelter penalties were often prevented via blending with slightly less deleterious material hence diluting the penalty elements while maintaining a profitable head grade.
Based upon historical internal technical reports from the Eskay Creek Mine, the parameters for determining reserves in 2006 were based upon a gold price of US$475.00 per ounce, a silver price of US$8.50 per ounce and a copper price of US$1.50 per pound. The determination of whether material was milled on site versus shipped directly …read more
From:: The Korelin Economic Report