Banyan Gold Corp. [TSX-V: BYN] is pleased to announce an Initial Mineral Resource Estimate in accordance with the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (“CIM”) Definition Standards incorporated by reference in National Instrument 43-101 (“NI 43-101”) for the Aurex and McQuesten properties (together, the “AurMac Property”)[1] located in the Mayo Mining district, approximately 56 kilometres northeast from the village of Mayo, Yukon and 356 kilometres north of Whitehorse, Yukon.
The Initial Mineral Resource Estimate comprises a total Inferred Mineral Resource of 903,945 ounces of gold on the near surface, road accessible AurMac Property.
This pit constrained Mineral Resource is contained in two near/on-surface deposits: The Airstrip and Powerline deposits. The Mineral Resource is summarized below:
Table 1: Pit-Constrained Inferred Mineral Resources at a 0.2 g/t Au Cut-Off – AurMac Property
| Deposit | Classification | Tonnage
Tonnes |
Average Au Grade
g/t |
Au Content
oz. |
| Airstrip | Inferred | 45,997,911 | 0.524 | 774,926 |
| Powerline | Inferred | 6,578,609 | 0.610 | 129,019 |
| Total Combined | Inferred | 52,576,520 | 0.535 | 903,945 |
Notes to Table 1:
- The effective date for the Mineral Resource is May 25, 2020.
- Mineral Resources which are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, sociopolitical, marketing, changes in global gold markets or other relevant issues.
- The CIM definitions were followed for classification of Mineral Resources. The quantity and grade of reported inferred Mineral Resources in this estimation are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define these inferred Mineral Resources as an indicated Mineral Resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading them to an indicated or measured Mineral Resource category.
- Mineral Resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.2 g/t Au, using a US$/CAN$ exchange rate of 0.75 and constrained within an open pit shell optimized with the Lerchs-Grossman algorithm to constrain the Mineral Resources with the following estimated parameters: gold price of US$1,500/ounce, US$1.50/t mining cost, US$2.00/t processing cost, US$2.50/t G+A, 80% heap leach recoveries, and 45° pit slope[2]
“We are excited with the value this initial Mineral Resource estimate generates for our shareholders, particularly given the modest exploration expenditures by Banyan, generating ounces at less than $2 per ounce. Both deposits are open, with mineralization known to extend beyond the current block model boundaries.” stated Tara Christie, President and CEO. “Further, examination of the Airstrip Mineral Resource model highlights its robust nature; when the cut-off grade is increased by 50%, to 0.3g/t, less than15% of the ounces are reduced; while, the grade increases by more than 20% to an average of 0.65 g/t. Additionally, the deposit model exercise has identified a series of drill targets, which we are confident will meaningfully build upon this initial Mineral Resource.”
A supporting NI 43-101 Technical Report will be filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com within 45 days of this release.
Detailed images of the Mineral Resource model, including an interactive 3D model and additional information can be found at: https://www.banyangold.com/projects/aurex-mcquesten/
About the AurMac Property
The AurMac Property is held by the Company under earn-in option agreements (the “Option Agreements”) with StrataGold Corporation, a 100% owned subsidiary of Victoria Gold Corp. (TSX-V: VIT) (“Victoria Gold”) and Alexco Resource Corporation (TSX: AXR) (“Alexco”). The Company has the right to earn up to a 100% interest in the AurMac Property, subject to royalties, pursuant to the terms and conditions of the Option Agreements.[3]
The Airstrip and Powerline deposits contained within the AurMac Property are both on and near-surface deposits and potentially open pit mineable, with expected low strip ratios. The AurMac Property is located just 40 km from Victoria Gold’s open pit, heap leach mine and 10 km from Alexco’s mill facility at the High-Grade silver deposits of the Keno Hills District. The AurMac Property lies on existing transportation infrastructure (Main Yukon Government Highway System) and the all-season road to Victoria Gold’s Eagle Mine. The Airstrip and Powerline deposits are within 1 km of each other and both within 50m of year-round access roads, have 3-phase powerlines and benefit from cellular communications.
Airstrip Deposit
The Airstrip deposit is delineated by 102 drill holes. Topographic control was from a detailed LiDAR survey dataset.
There are several geologic controls on gold mineralization as per the current geologic understanding of the Airstrip deposit. The Airstrip lithological model is made of seven units mainly oriented east-west, with six of the units dipping at approximately 40°. The bulk of the Inferred Mineral Resources are hosted within the calcareous package, a roughly 90-metre-thick zone that strike east west and dips approximately 35° to the south.
The most common sampling length of the Airstrip deposit is 1.5m, with approximately 40% of the sample data; and composites were constructed at this interval. Capping of high-grade outliers was based on lithological domains and varied from 0.4 g/t Au to 9.0 g/t Au.
The estimation of gold grades into a block model was carried out with the Ordinary Kriging (OK) technique on capped composites and the resultant block model contains a block size of 5m (easting) x 5m (northing) x 5m (elevation). Density was calculated from a total of 418 measurements from the drill core. The average density per lithology type was assigned to the corresponding blocks.
At a 0.20 g/t Au cut-off, the pit-constrained, inferred Mineral Resources are of 46.0 million tonnes at an average gold grade of 0.524 g/t for a total of 774,926 ounces of gold. Cut-off grade sensitivities for the Airstrip deposit are presented in Table 2.
Table 2: Pit-Constrained Inferred Mineral Resources – Airstrip Deposit
| Au Cut-Off
g/t |
Tonnage
Tonnes |
Average Au Grade
g/t |
Au Content
oz. |
| 0.10 | 61,300,337 | 0.430 | 847,466 |
| 0.15 | 53,264,976 | 0.476 | 815,154 |
| 0.20 | 45,997,911 | 0.524 | 774,926 |
| 0.25 | 38,397,872 | 0.583 | 719,725 |
| 0.30 | 31,869,662 | 0.647 | 662,938 |
| 0.35 | 26,516,484 | 0.712 | 606,998 |
| 0.40 | 21,676,296 | 0.787 | 548,467 |
| 0.45 | 18,151,272 | 0.857 | 500,125 |
| 0.50 | 15,513,348 | 0.923 | 460,361 |
Notes to Table 2:
- The effective date for the Mineral Resource is May 25, 2020.
- Mineral Resources which are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, sociopolitical, marketing, changes in global gold markets or other relevant issues.
- The CIM definitions were followed for the classification of inferred Mineral Resources. The quantity and grade of reported inferred Mineral Resources in this estimation are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define these inferred Mineral Resources as an indicated Mineral Resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading them to an indicated or measured Mineral Resource category.
- Mineral Resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.2 g/t Au, using a US$/CAN$ exchange rate of 0.75 and constrained within an open pit shell optimized with the Lerchs-Grossman algorithm to constrain the Mineral Resources with the following estimated parameters: gold price of US$1,500/ounce, US$1.50/t mining cost, US$2.00/t processing cost, US$2.50/t G+A, 80% heap leach recoveries, and 45° pit slope
Powerline Deposit
The drill data for the Powerline deposit is comprised of 15 drill holes. The most common sampling length of the Powerline deposit is 1.5m, with approximately 35% of the sample data. 1.5m was selected as the composite length and is based on the most common sampling length as well as on the envisioned block height of 5m. Capping of high-grade outliers was based on grade distribution domains and ranged from 4.0 g/t Au to 6.0 g/t Au.
The estimation of gold grades into a block model was carried out with the inverse distance squared (ID2) technique on capped composites with the resultant block model containing a block size of 5m (easting) x 5m (northing) x 5m (elevation).
At a 0.20 g/t Au cut-off, the pit-constrained, inferred Mineral Resources are of 6.6 million tonnes at an average gold grade of 0.61 g/t for a total of 129,019 ounces of gold. Cut-off grade sensitivities for the Powerline deposit are presented in Table 3.
Table 3. Pit-Constrained Inferred Mineral Resources – Powerline Deposit
| Au Cut-Off
g/t |
Tonnage
tonnes |
Average Au Grade
g/t |
Au Content
oz. |
| 0.10 | 7,281,920 | 0.565 | 132,277 |
| 0.15 | 6,930,115 | 0.588 | 131,011 |
| 0.20 | 6,578,609 | 0.610 | 129,019 |
| 0.25 | 6,084,687 | 0.641 | 125,397 |
| 0.30 | 5,457,139 | 0.683 | 119,833 |
| 0.35 | 4,939,191 | 0.720 | 114,335 |
| 0.40 | 4,420,295 | 0.761 | 108,150 |
| 0.45 | 4,083,388 | 0.789 | 103,583 |
| 0.50 | 3,654,322 | 0.826 | 97,046 |
Notes to Table 3:
- The effective date for the Mineral Resource is May 25, 2020.
- Mineral Resources which are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, sociopolitical, marketing, changes in global gold markets or other relevant issues.
- The CIM definitions were followed for the classification of inferred Mineral Resources. The quantity and grade of reported inferred Mineral Resources in this estimation are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define these inferred Mineral Resources as an indicated Mineral Resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading them to an indicated or measured Mineral Resource category.
- Mineral Resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.2 g/t Au, using a US$/CAN$ exchange rate of 0.75 and constrained within an open pit shell optimized with the Lerchs-Grossman algorithm to constrain the Mineral Resources with the following estimated parameters: gold price of US$1,500/ounce, US$1.50/t mining cost, US$2.00/t processing cost, US$2.50/t G+A, 80% heap leach recoveries, and 45° pit slope
Quality Assurance, Quality Control Measures and Data Verification
The reported work was completed using industry standard procedures, including a quality assurance/quality control (“QA/QC”) program consisting of the insertion of certified standards and blanks into the sample stream and utilizing certified independent analytical laboratories for all assays. Additionally, historic QA/QC data and methodology on the AurMac Property were reviewed and will be summarized in the NI 43-101 Technical Report. The qualified persons detected no significant QA/QC issues during review of the data.
A robust system of standards, ¼ core duplicates and analytical blanks, was implemented in all Banyan drilling programs and was monitored as chemical assay data became available. All control samples were within accuracy and precision thresholds required to meet data quality standards. These control samples amounted to approximately 10% of the all samples submitted to analytical laboratories. A verification program of historic core was carried out by re-sampling the entire length of two holes, MQ-00-004 and MQ-03-009. The percent relative difference between the re-assays and the original assays ranged from -1.5% to +2.5%.
All geological data in the resource estimate was verified by Ginto Consulting Inc. (“Ginto”) as being accurate to the extent possible and to the extent possible all geological information was reviewed and confirmed. Ginto made site visits to the AurMac property in 2018 and 2019 and observed Banyan’s drilling and sampling techniques, as well as viewed AurMac drillcore. Ginto confirms that the assay sampling and QA/QC sampling of core by Banyan provides adequate and good verification of the data and believes the work to have been done within the guidelines of NI 43-101. Additional discussion on the AurMac Mineral Resource Model Data Verification will be included in the forthcoming NI 43-101 Technical Report to be filed on SEDAR in the near future.
Qualified Persons
The Initial Mineral Resource Estimate for the AurMac Property was prepared by Marc Jutras, P.Eng., M.A.Sc., Principal, Ginto Consulting Inc., an independent Qualified Person in accordance with the requirements of NI 43-101, who has reviewed and approved the contents of this release.
Paul D. Gray, P.Geo., Vice President of Exploration for the Company, is a “qualified person” as defined under NI 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the content of this news release.
Analytical Method
All drill core and RC splits collected from the 2017 to 2019 Aurex-McQuesten programs were analyzed at Bureau Veritas Minerals of Vancouver, B.C. utilizing the aqua regia digestion ICP-MS 36-element AQ200 analytical package with FA450 50-gram Fire Assay with AAS finish for gold on all samples. All core samples were split on-site at Banyan’s core processing facilities in Elsa, Yukon. Once split, half samples were placed back in the core boxes with the other half of split samples sealed in poly bags with one part of a three-part sample tag inserted within. All RC samples were split in the field with a 3-tier riffle splitter with 87.5% of the sample being stored in a reject poly bag and 12.5% of the sample in a submittal poly bag. Once split, both poly bags were sealed with one part of a three-part sample tag inserted within. Samples were delivered by Banyan personnel or a dedicated expediter to Bureau Veritas, an independent Whitehorse preparatory laboratory where samples are prepared and then shipped to Bureau Veritas’s Analytical laboratory in Vancouver, B.C. for pulverization and final chemical analysis. A more robust description of historic analytical procedures will be included in the forthcoming AurMac NI 43-101 report to be filed on SEDAR in due course.
Risk Factors
Banyan is unaware of any legal, political, environmental or other risks that could materially affect the potential development of the Mineral Resource estimates described in this news release.
COVID-19 Update
Banyan has taken proactive measures to protect the health and safety of our employees and communities from COVID 19 and exploration activities in 2020 will have additional safety measures in place, following and exceeding all the recommendations made by the Yukon’s Chief Medical Officer.
There have been 11 COVID-19 cases confirmed in Yukon to date, with all patients having fully recovered. No cases have required hospitalization.
2020 Exploration Update
The geologic model validated at the Airstrip and Powerline deposits is likely applicable elsewhere on the 92 sq. km property; including other areas such as Aurex Hill where a seven square kilometer gold in soil anomaly has been identified. Banyan spent approximately $1.8 M on exploration to establish the initial Mineral Resources, with an exploration cost of less than $2/ounce.
Banyan is in the process of planning its 2020 exploration programs, which are anticipated to start in June. Details of exploration plans will be released when available.
About Banyan
Banyan is focused on gold exploration projects that have the geological potential, size of land package and proximity to infrastructure that is advantageous for a mineral project to have potential to become a mine. Our Yukon based projects both fit this model and our objective is to gain shareholder value by advancing projects in our pipeline.
The Hyland Gold Project, located 70km NE of Watson Lake, Yukon, along the southeast end of the Tintina Gold Belt is a sediment hosted, structurally controlled, intrusion related gold deposit, with a large land package (over 125 sq. km), with the Mineral Resource contained in the Main Zone area (900x600m) daylighting at surface and numerous other known surface gold targets. The Main Zone oxide zone is amenable to heap leach open pit mining, with column leach recoveries of 86%. The project has an existing gravel access road.
The 9,230 ha AurMac Property lies in close proximity to both Victoria Gold’s Eagle Project and Alexco ‘s Keno Hill Silver District and is highly prospective for structurally controlled, intrusion related gold-silver mineralization in relation to the Tombstone intrusive suite. The property hosts numerous known gold targets and Banyan has developed a mineralization model at the McQuesten “Airstrip” and “Powerline” Gold deposits, located adjacent to the main Yukon highway and just off the main access road to the Victoria Gold open-pit, heap leach Eagle Gold mine. The AurMac Property benefits from a 3-phase powerline, existing Yukon Energy Corp. switching power station and cell phone coverage. Banyan has optioned the properties from Victoria Gold and Alexco respectively with a right to earn up to a 100% subject to royalties.
Banyan trades on the TSX-Venture Exchange under the symbol “BYN”. For more information, please visit the corporate website at www.BanyanGold.com or contact the Company.
ON BEHALF OF BANYAN GOLD CORPORATION
(signed) “Tara Christie”
Tara Christie
President & CEO
For more information, please contact:
Tara Christie David Rutt
Tel: (888) 629-0444 Tel: (888) 629-0444
Email: tchristie@banyangold.com Email: drutt@banyangold.com
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT: Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. This news release contains forward-looking information, which is not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, Banyan’s objectives, goals or future plans, statements regarding exploration expectations, exploration or development plans and mineral resource estimates. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, uncertainties inherent in resource estimates , capital and operating costs varying significantly from estimates, the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, environmental or other project approvals, political risks, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, changes in equity markets, inflation, changes in exchange rates, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in the development of projects and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, enhanced risks inherent to conducting business in any jurisdiction, and those risks set out in Banyan’s public documents filed on SEDAR. Although Banyan believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. Banyan disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.
Statements in this news release regarding Banyan which are not historical facts are “forward-looking statements” that involve risks and uncertainties. Such information can generally be identified by the use of forwarding-looking wording such as “may”, “will”, “expect”, “estimate”, “anticipate”, “intend”, “believe” and “continue” or the negative thereof or similar variations.
[1] Formerly referred to as the Aurex-McQuesten property in previous Company disclosure.
[2] The gold price and cost assumptions are consistent with current pricing assumptions and costs, and in particular are consistent with those employed for recent technical reports for similar pit-constrained Yukon gold projects.
[3] Refer to Press Releases of the Company dated December 13, 2019, July 9, 2019 and May 25, 2017 for further details regarding the Aurex Option Agreement and McQuesten Option Agreement.