Ascot Resources has announced high grade intercepts from infill work completed on the Big Missouri deposit at its Premier gold project. Drill highlights include:
- 5.5 metres of 22.54 g/t gold;
- 2.1 metres of 24.9 g/t gold.
Ascot’s current focus at Big Missouri is on outlining higher grade underground targets.
“We are confident that the drilling will convert a substantial amount of our inferred resources to the indicated category for mine planning and the upcoming feasibility study,” said Derek White, Ascot’s president and CEO in the press release.
Big Missouri is located an estimated five km north of the Premier mill. The deposit was previously mined both through open pit and underground methods.
Big Missouri is currently host to indicated resources of 539,000 tonnes at 8.19 g/t gold and 20.5 g/t silver for a total of 142,000 oz. of gold and 355,000 oz. of silver. Additional inferred resources stand at 2.25 million tonnes grading 8.25 g/t gold and 18.4 g/t silver for 596,000 oz. of gold and 1.3 million oz. of silver.
New discovery west of Premier
Last week, Ascot also released exploration results from a potential discovery west of the Premier deposit. Intercepts of note include:
- 3.6 metres of 17.29 g/t gold;
- 4.2 metres of 12.83 g/t gold.
The holes in this release follow up on a one metre intercept of 9.7 g/t gold reported in November which was returned during work on a geotechnical drill hole at the proposed portal site for the Premier deposit.
Ascot now considers this area a high priority for exploration due to potential for additional resources in close proximity to existing and planned infrastructure. Two of the ten holes reported intercepted three separate zones of gold mineralization.
Additional modeling and interpretation is planned to determine the relationship of this area to existing resources located to the east.
The Premier project, located within British Columbia’s Golden Triangle, is currently host to five deposits with existing resource estimates. Ascot also holds the Red Mountain project, approximately 10 km from Premier. There is an existing mill, tailings facility and water treatment plant at the Premier project.
Work is currently underway on an integrated feasibility study.
(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)