Merges Aurex Hill with Powerline, swelling resource to 7 Moz North of 60 Mining News – February 7, 2024
Banyan Gold Corp. Feb. 7 announced an updated mineral resource estimate for its AurMac gold project in Yukon, Canada, climbing its total to 7 million ounces of gold.
“With the AurMac resource now at 7 million ounces; 6.2 million ounces in the Powerline deposit alone, we can focus on delineating higher-grade zones, increase the confidence in the resource and further de-risk the project,” said Banyan Gold President and CEO Tara Christie.
This marks an increase of 1 million oz of gold over a 2023 calculation, thanks to 107 holes drilled at the Powerline deposit last year.
In the last two years alone, the company has increased its deposit by over three million oz.
In its previous calculation, Banyan added the resources from the Aurex Hill deposit. However, due to the company connecting Powerline and Aurex Hill through meticulous 100-meter step-outs, the newest estimate consolidates the two resources into a single deposit simply known as Powerline.
With Aurex Hill being absorbed into the overall Powerline estimate, the deposit now hosts 312.2 million metric tons of pit-constrained inferred resource averaging 0.61 g/t gold (6.16 million oz) gold. At a similar cutoff, the grade remains unchanged; however, the total tonnage has swelled around 45%.
Airstrip hosts an additional 35.2 million metric tons of pit-constrained inferred resource averaging 0.75 g/t (845,000 oz) gold.
In preparation for an eventual economic study for a mine at AurMac, Banyan also reported positive results from the first phase of its metallurgical test program. Focusing primarily on Powerline, results suggest robust recoveries throughout the deposit, determined through multiple conventional mineral processing flow sheets.
“Metallurgical test work highlights robust gold recoveries with multiple conventional mineral processing flow sheets and further optimization has a high likelihood to result in increased overall gold recoveries,” said Christie on Banyan’s metallurgical results. “These results represent a significant step forward at AurMac and continued work will focus on crush and grind sizes, in addition to power and reagent consumption. Work will be focused to support a future economic study using one or more of the identified processes.”
The initial phase of metallurgical testing demonstrates gold recoveries of 84% for gravity plus floatation, 91% from carbon-in-leach and bottle roll testing, and between 64% and 72% from heap leach. Banyan plans to expand its metallurgical program to test samples from the previous Aurex Hill deposit, as well as Airstrip.
This will include more test work to enhance the understanding of gold deportment; grind sizes for flotation, flotation concentrate and carbon-in-pulp, and carbon-in-leach; gravity separation; and additional work on heap leaching, including crush size sensitivity.
“Metallurgical studies to date have demonstrated that Powerline mineralization is amenable to conventional mining processes, including carbon-in-pulp and carbon-in-leach, flotation and heap leaching,” added the gold mining CEO. “Looking at the grade sensitivities, at a 0.60 g/t cut-off there are potentially 4 million ounces at a grade of 1 g/t across AurMac, which highlights both the robust nature of the deposit as the cut-off grade is increased along with the potential for higher grade zones.”
Banyan Gold Corp.
Map showing the mineral resource estimate extents and drill locations at Powerline.
Kicking off the year with a satisfying acknowledgment of its work so far, Banyan can enjoy a job well done as it moves into another year of exploration.
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