Cuts 0.9 meters of 691.5 g/t gold in the Big Missouri deposit – North of 60 Mining News – November 3, 2023
Ascot Resources Ltd. Nov. 3 reported a bonanza grade gold intercept at Big Missouri that is the highest-grade intercept ever drilled at this first deposit to be mined when operations resume at the company’s Premier gold project in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle.
Lying about nine miles (15 kilometers) north of Stewart, BC, Ascot’s Premier gold project is home to a past-producing gold mine that last operated in the 1990s.
A feasibility study completed in 2020 detailed plans to develop four underground mines – Big Missouri, Premier, Silver Coin, and Red Mountain – that will feed ore to an upgraded mill at Premier. At 2,500 metric tons per day, this operation is expected to produce roughly 1.1 million ounces of gold and 3 million oz of silver over the first eight years of mining.
Big Missouri is a deposit about t 3.7 miles (six kilometers) north of the Premier mill that hosts 809,000 metric tons of probable reserve averaging 7.15 grams per metric ton (186,000 oz) gold and 12.2 g/t (317,000 oz) silver.
Underground mine development began at Big Missouri in 2022, and crews are currently mining and stockpiling ore from this deposit as development advances.
This year, Ascot completed 6,539 meters of drilling at Big Missouri in 72 holes. The latest batch of Premier assays are from the 17 holes drilled at Big Missouri. Highlights from this initial batch of 2023 Big Missouri drill results include:
• 9.72 meters averaging 22.3 g/t gold in hole P23-2484, including 1.91 meters averaging 98.1 g/t gold.
• 6.48 meters averaging 98.84 g/t gold in hole P23-2490, including 0.9 meters averaging 691.5 g/t gold.
• 5.65 meters averaging 17.72 g/t gold in hole P23-2494, including 1.6 meters averaging 31.9 g/t gold.
The 691.5 g/t gold intercept in P23-2490 is the highest grade encountered on the Premier property in eight years.
“With underground mine development at Big Missouri having started last year, this is an opportune time to have intercepted some of the highest-grade gold mineralization in Ascot’s history,” said Ascot Resources President and CEO Derek White. “In particular, the 692 gram-per-tonne intercept from hole P23-2490 is located in an area currently scheduled to be mined next year, and as such we are eager to exploit this material early in the mine life.”
Earlier this year, Ascot reported assays from Prew, a zone of the Premier deposit next to the mill that is also slated to provide ore for the revamped operation. Highlights from 16 holes drilled at Prew this year include:
Ascot Resources Ltd.
Map showing the Big Missouri drill intercepts in relation to underground development and the stopes scheduled to be mined. Hole P23-2490 was drilled from pad 23-BM1.
• 6.5 meters averaging 23.37 g/t gold in hole P23-2465.
• 4.9 meters averaging 32.85 g/t gold in hole P23-2468.
• 4.28 meters averaging 21.98 g/t gold in hole P23-2472.
• 6.87 meters averaging 18.93 g/t gold in hole P23-2475.
White says the company is “pleased with the high-grade tenor of the drill results, and better than expected sizes and grades in the Prew Zone.”
Procon Mining & Tunnelling Ltd., which entered into a contract with Ascot earlier this year to carry out the underground mining at Premier, is driving a new ramp down into Prew Zone.
“Development work recently commenced on the Premier portal and decline which will access the Prew Zone anticipated in early 2024 prior to mill start-up and initial gold production,” White said in October.
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