Skeena advances on Eskay Creek assays
Skeena Resources Ltd. [SKE-TSXV; SKREF-OTC] on Wednesday October 31 released additional gold-silver assays for six holes from the continuing phase 1 surface drilling program at the Eskay Creek Project located in northwest British Columbia’s Golden Triangle region.
The multi-faceted Phase 1 program is being performed in the historically drill defined 21A, 21C and 22 zones.
Highlights include 10.09 g/t gold equivalent over 45 metres, including 13.06 g/t gold, 84 g/t silver and 14.18 g/t gold equivalent over 27.77 metres.
Reported core lengths represent 80 to 100% of the true widths and are supported by well-defined mineralization geometries derived from historical drilling, the company said in a press release Wednesday.
Skeena shares advanced on the news, rising 2.6% or $0.01 to 39.5 cents. The 52-week range is 29 cents and 80 cents.
Skeena is engaged in a bid to revive two of Canada’s most successful high-grade precious metal mines – Snip and Eskay Creek – both in the Golden Triangle.
“Eskay Creek was a remarkable discovery that became an extraordinary mine,” Skeena CEO Water Coles has said. “It produced 3.3 million ounces of gold and 160 million ounces of silver from 2.2 million tonnes of ore from 1994 until closure in 2008.”
Snip was also a high-grade mine that produced approximately 1 million ounces of gold from 1991 to 1999, at an average gold grade of 25 g/t at a 12 g/t reserve cut off.
Eskay Creek ranked as highest grade gold mine in the world at the time that it was in production.
It was also the world’s fifth highest grade silver producer.
“The decision to stop mining at Eskay Creek would have happened in 2005-2006 when the price of gold was around $500 an ounce,” Earle said.
In December 2017, Skeena secured an option to acquire a 100% stake in the Eskay Creek property, which is endowed with excellent infrastructure, including all-weather road access and proximity to the new 287-kilovolt Northwest Transmission Line.
The Phase 1 drilling program at Eskay Creek continues to demonstrate the excellent grade and geological continuity of the 21A Zone, Skeena said. The program is designed to infill and upgrade areas of the 21A Zone with low drill density to sufficient drill spacing to allow for future economic analyses and also to collect fresh material for an upcoming metallurgical testing program.
The 21B Zone is geologically and geochemically equivalent to the 21A Zone and accounted for the bulk of the mineralization historically mined at Eskay Creek, the company said.
Skeena recently collected $6.7 million from the sale of 7.5 million flow-through common shares at 90 cents per share. Hochschild Mining Holdings Ltd., a unit of Hochschild Mining Plc., was the end purchaser of the shares via a charity flow-through swap. It acquired the shares at a price of 74 cents per share and now owns 8% of Skeena. Concurrent with the closing of the financing, Hochschild gained an option to earn a 60% interest in the Snip mine.