Seabridge Gold boosts resource

In mining — as in life — timing is everything. For proof look no further than Seabridge Gold (SEA-V).

In June 2000 the Canadian junior bought its Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell gold-copper project in northwestern British Columbia from Placer Dome for C$200,000 at a time when gold was trading at US$260 per oz. and copper was at about US65 per lb.

Today the spot price for gold has climbed to about US$882 per oz. pushing well past the record-high of US$858 per oz. it achieved 28 years ago and making a beeline, many analysts are convinced, for $900 per oz. (Copper has also done well, surging to $3.29 per lb. since the millennium.)

“We bought the property when nobody believed in a future for gold and copper,” says Rudi Fronk, Seabridge’s president and chief executive. “We did.”

Today the company released a National Instrument 43-101 resource estimate on two of the three zones on its Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell project confirming total resources of 4.5 million oz. gold and more than 3 billion lbs copper.

The Kerr-Sulphurets project is made up of two contiguous claim blocks 65 km northwest of Stewart in the Iskut-Stikine region.

The indicated resource clocks in at 206.3 million tonnes grading 0.25 gram gold per tonne and 0.45% copper on the Kerr zone and 74.7 million tonnes grading 0.75 gram gold per tonne and 0.24% copper on the Sulphurets zone.

There is also an inferred resource of a further 51.3 million tonnes grading 0.21 gram gold per tonne and 0.45% copper at the Kerr zone, and 33.6 million tonnes grading 0.62 gram gold per tonne and 0.20% copper on the Sulphurets zone.

The estimate uses a cutoff grade of 0.50 gram per tonne gold equivalent and is based on 144 drill holes and 26,409 metres of drilling on the Kerr zone and 60 drill holes and 13,033 metres of drilling on the Sulphurets zone.

But that’s not all. The Kerr-Sulphurets project includes the nearby Mitchell porphyry deposit, which was discovered in 2006, just north of the Sulphurets deposit.

In April, Seabridge filed a NI 43-101 technical report showing an inferred resource of 564 million tonnes grading 0.72 gram gold per tonne (13.1 million oz. gold) and 0.18% copper (2.23 billion lbs).

In July, Seabridge started a 15,000-metre drill program focusing on the Mitchell zone to explore extensions of the deposit to the south, north and at depth.

All three zones are being incorporated into a preliminary assessment that will be completed before the end of the year.

“We see it as one mining operation, with one central processing plant to deal with the three zones,” Fronk explains. “Metallurgically they are similar. So you don’t need a different processing technique for the different zones.”

A new NI-43-101 resource estimate for the Mitchell zone is expected next month.

“Mitchell is going to get a lot bigger,” says Fronk. “We expect a meaningful increase with Mitchell well above the 13 million oz. we have stated already and we expect a significant portion of that to go into the indicated category Mitchell will [also] have the highest gold rate of the three [zones].”

“It’s fair to say the Ker-Sulphurets-Mitchell project is fast approaching to be one of the largest undeveloped gold-copper systems anywhere in the world today and only one of a handful that is 100% owned by a junior company,” Fronk adds. “And it’s in a jurisdiction in which the majors want to operate.”

The project is also suited to a large mining operation with year-round road access only 25 km away, connecting to the port of Stewart, which provides year-round access to the Pacific Ocea, Fronk explains.

The property is 20 km southeast of Barrick Gold‘s (ABX-T, ABX-N) Eskay Creek mine.

Seabridge shares on the TSX Venture Exchange were off 25 to $27.55 apiece, on 24,720 shares traded. Its shares have traded between $12.98 and $39 over the last 52 weeks.