Banyan Gold launches 30,000-metre drill program at AurMac Project, Yukon
Banyan Gold Corp. [TSXV: BYN; OTCQB; BYAGF] has mobilized personnel and drills to start the 2025 diamond drilling and exploration program at its AurMac Project in the Tombstone gold belt, Yukon Territory. The 30,000-metre campaign will focus on: further expansion and definition of mineralized zones in Airstrip and Powerline, with both deposits remaining open in all directions; testing proximal and distal targets identified through soil anomalies and geophysical surveys; and defining areas of higher grade, particularly near surface (fewer than 100 m).
A focus of the 2025 strategic drill program will be to follow up on high-grade intersections from 2024. Multiple holes in the Airstrip deposit intersected high-grade, near-surface gold mineralization, with assays such as 15.9 metres of 9.32 g/t gold, including 3.7 metres of 33.43 g/t gold and 13.8 metres of 3.81 g/t gold.
Drilling from 2024 at the Powerline deposit resulted in 16 drill holes with intersections greater than 50 gram-metres, including AX-24-540, which intersected 23.1 m of 5.68 g/t gold from 159.3 metres, including 0.2 metres of 539.3 g/t gold. Additionally, new regional diamond drill targets have been identified at AurMac and will be tested through the coming spring and summer programs.
“We are excited to be back in the field for a spring start and to follow up on the success from 2024,” stated Duncan McKay, vice-president exploration. “Last year’s program set the foundation for our 2025 drill campaign, with the potential to further delineate relatively high-grade mineralized domains in Airstrip and Powerline. Both deposits have promising targets for expansion and are open in all directions. Geophysical surveys, combined with soil sample anomalies, provide opportunities for additional drill discoveries on our largely untested land package.”
Of the 30,000 metres of drilling planned for 2025, approximately three-quarters will be allocated to advance the understanding of mineralized domains in Airstrip and Powerline. At Airstrip, which hosts a 845,000-ounce inferred resource, drilling aims to further delineate the near-surface, high-grade zone (greater than two g/t gold) felsic dike contact zone identified in 2024 drilling, while testing for potential extensions along strike and at depth. At Powerline, which hosts a 6,158,000-ounce inferred resource, drilling has the potential to delineate relatively high-grade (greater than one g/t gold) mineralized domains. Diamond drilling will also test potential for expansion of the known mineralized system at both Airstrip and Powerline.
Regional targets have also been identified using new geophysical surveys from 2024 in combination with soil sampling anomalies. Approximately one-quarter of the 30,000-metre program will be testing potential at these high-priority targets, with a small percentage (up to 5%) of holes being allocated to condemnation holes for potential infrastructure locations.
Drilling will be complemented by surface sampling, continuing metallurgical work and environmental surveys, along with scoping studies required for a preliminary economic assessment of the project in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Banyan’s primary asset, the AurMac project, is located in Canada’s Yukon. The current inferred mineral resource estimate (MRE) for the AurMac project of seven million ounces has an effective date of February 6, 2024.
The 173 km2 AurMac project lies 40 km from Mayo, Yukon. The AurMac project is transected by the main Yukon highway and benefits from a three-phase powerline, existing power station and cell phone coverage. Banyan has the right to earn up to a 100% interest in both the Aurex and McQuesten properties, respectively, subject to certain royalties.
The inferred MRE for the AurMac project was prepared on Feb. 6, 2024, and consisted of 7,003,000 ounces of gold hosted within near-surface, road-accessible, pit-constrained mineral resources contained in two near-surface/on-surface deposits: the Airstrip and Powerline deposits.
In addition to the AurMac property, the company holds the Hyland gold project, located 70 km northeast of Watson Lake, Yukon, along the southeast end of the Tintina gold belt. The Hyland project represents a sediment-hosted, structurally controlled, intrusion-related gold deposit within a large land package (over 125 km2), accessible by a network of existing gravel access roads.