Drilling operations at the Barkerville Gold Mines Cariboo gold project near Wells, British Columbia. Source: Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd.
Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. [BGM-TSXV; BGMZF-OTC; IWUB-FSE] on Wednesday reported impressive results from drilling at its Cariboo Gold project in central British Columbia.
Wednesday’s news release contains the final drilling results from the 2018 Cow Mountain exploration and category conversion program. It consisted of 63,970 metres of drilling in 231 holes in the Cow Mountain area. Barkerville said these results demonstrated the continuity of high-grade gold mineralization within vein corridors and extensions down dip and down plunge.
Highlights include 12.26 g/t gold over 7.60 metres in hole CM-18-206, including a high-grade intercept of 97.8 g/t over 0.80 metres. The intercept was located 15 metres up dip from hole CM-18-140, which intersected 37.87 g/t gold over 4.75 metres.
Other select highlights include 30.16 g/t gold over 2.80 metres and 11.77 g/t gold over 5.00 metres.
Barkerville said the drill program at Cow Mountain was designed to infill and expand high-grade gold-mineralized vein corridors modelled in the May 2018 Cow Mountain resource estimate. Vein corridors are defined as a high-density network of mineralized veins within sandstones. These corridors have been defined from surface to a vertical depth of 300 metres and remain open for expansion at depth and down plunge.
The company is working on an updated model that will include results from the additional 231 holes.
Backed by Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd. (OR-TSX, OR-NYSE) and Osisko Mining Inc. (OSK-TSX), Barkerville is moving ahead with big plans to develop an underground mine and milling operation on the company’s extensive land package, which covers 1,950 square kilometres.
During an interview that is posted on Barkerville’s website, President and Chief Executive Officer Chris Lodder said he envisages initial production of 150,000 ounces of gold annually from an operation that might cost between $300 million and $400 million to develop.
To help fund ongoing work, the company said it expected to process about 30,000 tonnes of ore in 2018, material that is being processed at a milling facility near Wells, B.C., about 110 kilometres from the mine site.
Barkerville recently raised $11 million for the purpose of financing ongoing exploration and development at the Cariboo gold project.
Located in a historic mining district where the first gold discoveries were made in 1858, Cariboo currently hosts 1.6 million ounces of gold in measured and indicated resources and a further 2.6 million ounces in the inferred resource category. Measured, indicated and inferred resources are contained in the Cow and Island Mountain deposits.
The underground mineral resource estimate incorporates the Cow and Valley Zones on Cow Mountain and Shaft Zone and Mosquito Creek on Island Mountain at a cut-off grade of 3.0 g/t gold.
Mineral resources in the Bonanza Ledge and BC Vein deposits on Barkerville Mountain are also included in the resource estimate, the company said in a press release on May 2, 2018.
On September 11, 2018, the company announced positive results from its test mine at Bonanza Ledge, allowing the company to assess mining methods, understand what ground conditions to expect in different lithological units, train a local workforce, and generate cash flow to offset some exploration expenses.
All gathered data will add to the robustness of the company’s feasibility study, which will be released in 2019 the company has said.
On Wednesday, Barkerville shares were unchanged at 42.5 cents. They trade in a 52-week range of 75 cents and 32 cents.