Sabina Gold drills 12.59 g/t gold over 45.05 metres at Back River, Nunavut

Sabina Gold & Silver Corp. [SBB-TSX; SGSVF-OTCQX; RXC-FSE] reported additional high-grade assay results from the final drill holes of the 2022 spring drilling program at the Goose property on its 100%-owned Back River gold project in Nunavut, Canada.

The goal of this eight-hole drilling program focused at the V2 Zone at Umwelt was to better define the high-grade continuity of areas within the existing resource envelope near the interface of the planned open pit and upper portions of the underground. This year’s drilling has demonstrated that the higher grade of the V2 zone has been extended up plunge into the lower portions of the open pit. The added confidence in this higher-grade mineralization will serve towards informing optimization of the Umwelt mine plan.

All drill holes encountered intervals of significant gold mineralization. Select highlights from this drilling include 12.59 g/t gold over 45.05 metres, including 21.33 g/t gold over 23.15 metres, and 30.38 g/t gold over 8.00 metres in drill hole 22GSE607. Hole 22GSE610 returned 21.87 g/t gold over 15.10 metres, including 46.40 g/t gold over 4.20 metres.

Hole 22GSE611 returned 12.64 g/t gold over 20.35 metres and 16.22 g/t gold over 10.57 metres, including 40.00 g/t gold over 3.90 metres and 7.41 g/t gold over 12.60 metres, including 20.86 g/t gold over 4.00 metres in three sequential zones.

Initial V2 Zone drilling in 2020 tested the upper portions of the Umwelt underground as part of a program to test the hypothesis of a high-grade corridor from the bottom of the pit down plunge to the high-grade Vault Zone (drilled in 2018/19). Drilling is still required to test continuity of the structure between the Vault and V2 zones. Between 2020 and this current program, the V2 zone has been tested by 14 additional drill holes which have better defined and added confidence to the continuity of higher-grade mineralization over a plunge length of 365 metres.

“These results continue to demonstrate the exceptional gold endowment of the Umwelt deposit and its potential for further optimization and growth of high-grade gold zones both within and outside of the current mine design,” said Bruce McLeod, President and CEO. “The significant plunge of defined gold mineralization within iron formation at the Umwelt Deposit has strong potential for additional discovery both laterally and at depth. With the current advancement of our exploration ramp at Umwelt we expect to be in a position to commence underground exploration drilling later this year.”

Sabina’s focus on the Umwelt deposit with drilling, core review, detailed modelling and structural interpretation over the last several years has yielded strong exploration and optimization opportunities, both at the deposit, property, and belt scales. Geological learnings have driven positive resource growth and optimization at the Umwelt, Llama and Goose Main deposits, and generated exploration opportunities resulting in the discovery of the Nuvuyak resource and evolution of the Hook zone towards future growth as a possible new resource.

Results from drilling in 2022 will add to the confidence in the continuity of the higher-grade gold mineralization and thus offer opportunity for design adjustments and potential engineering optimizations of the pit wall, crown pillar, and underground sills. Drilling of holes 22GSE605, 22GSE606, 22GSE607, 22GSE608, 22GSE610, 22GSE611 and 22GSE613 largely targeted the intersection of the Quartz Feldspar Porphyry with the Lower Iron Formation within the short limb (aka “east limb”) of the antiform/synform system; a plunging structure with significant width, of particularly high-grade gold mineralization. Understanding and supporting mineralization continuity down plunge through this zone is important for forward planning and expansion, since the deposit is open along limbs and at depth.

Sabina filed an Updated Feasibility Study on its first mine on the district, the Goose Mine, which presents a project that will produce ~223,000 oz gold per year (first five years average of 287,000 oz/year with peak production of 312,000 oz in year three) for ~15 years with a rapid payback of 2.3 years, with a post-tax IRR of ~28% and NPV5% of C$1.1B at a gold price of US$1,600/oz. The project has received all major permits and authorizations for construction and operations.