Victoria Gold Corp. [VGCX-TSX] has declared commercial production at its 100%-owned Eagle gold mine, central Yukon, on July 1, 2020. The mine is located 85 km north of Mayo and 375 km north of Whitehorse.
All facilities required at this stage of the mine life are complete. Mining, crushing, processing and maintenance operations are performing at a high level. The company’s first reporting period under commercial production will be the third quarter ended September 30, 2020.
“Site activities continue to progress well, and all facilities and operations are now at or approaching design capacity. This consistent production, combined with materially positive operating cash flow, has allowed Victoria management to declare commercial production as of July 1, 2020,” said John McConnell, P and CEO. “Achievement of commercial production is a meaningful and memorable accomplishment that the entire team is proud to be part of. Special thanks goes to so many contributors, including the local communities and the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun, who have helped us make Eagle a reality.”
The company continues to follow strict COVID-19 protocols at the road-accessible Eagle Mine site, as well as across the company’s work locations. Yukon is currently in Phase 2 of lifting COVID-19 restrictions. The Eagle Mine site continues to operate on a four-week-in/four-week-out schedule rather than the normal pre-COVID-19 two-week-in/two-week-out schedule.
Victoria Gold has begun its 2020 Dublin Gulch exploration campaign. The Eagle Mine is located on the Dublin Gulch property. This year’s focus is diamond drilling and surface trenching at the high-grade, near-surface gold showings at Raven and the Nugget intrusive stock, an Eagle geological look-a-like, along with a series of previously untested priority targets identified from 2018 to 2019 surface geochemical surveys and geologic mapping.
“With Eagle now in production, 2020 will see a robust exploration campaign within the broader Dublin Gulch camp. We are picking up right where we left off last season as we continue to define the high-grade Raven target,” said McConnell. “Two thousand nineteen established a larger footprint for Raven gold mineralization and this season will build on that success to demonstrate the size potential of the Raven target.”
Raven trench results include 6.64 g/t gold over 10.0 metres and 7.91 g/t gold over 12.0 metres. Raven drill results include 7.72 g/t gold over 2.8 metres and 4.48 g/t gold over 5.9 metres.
The $6-million 2020 Dublin Gulch exploration program will include extensive diamond drilling, surface trenches, soil geochemistry, detailed geological mapping and prospecting combined with continuing access updates. The Raven, Nugget and the Lynx targets will all be assessed over the course of the season.
The Dublin Gulch property covers an area of approximately 555 km2 and is the site of the company’s Eagle and Olive gold deposits. The Eagle and Olive deposits include proven and probable reserves of 3.3 million ounces of gold from 155 million tonnes of ore grading 0.65 g/t gold.