Drilling at Fortune Bay’s (TSXV: FOR; US-OTC: FTBYF) Goldfields project in northern Saskatchewan has extended shallow historical near-surface mineralization at the Golden Pond target, just north of the Box gold mine that predated uranium mining in the area.
Highlight hole GP26-02 cut 23.2 metres grading 1.2 grams gold per tonne from 15 metres depth, while hole GP26-03 returned 6.8 metres at 2.06 grams gold from 43.1 metres downhole, Fortune Bay said Tuesday. Goldfields is 700 km north of Regina.
“The Golden Pond results are an important addition to our recent exploration success at Goldfields,” Fortune Bay CEO Dale Verran said in a release. “Together with the recent Box deposit step-out results, these results highlight the broader opportunity to expand and add to the Goldfields resource base from targets located close to past-producing and planned mine infrastructure.”
Prairie gold
Located about 13 km south of Uranium City, Goldfields offers rare yellow metal activity in Saskatchewan, which is known more for uranium and potash mining. It’s also one of very few gold projects in the province to have advanced to a preliminary economic assessment (PEA). Fortune Bay’s Box target sits where the namesake underground mine produced about 64,000 oz. of gold between 1939 and 1942.
Gold exploration and mining in the area predates uranium activity by at least a decade.
Company shares gained 4% to 64¢ apiece on Tuesday morning in Toronto, valuing the company at of $44.7 million (US$32.5 million). The stock has traded in a 12-month window of 49¢ to $1.17.
Other noteworthy intercepts at Golden Pond include GP26-05 that cut 7.1 metres grading 1.06 grams gold from 14 metres depth, and hole GP26-04 which returned 9.8 metres at 0.69 gram gold from 17.2 metres downhole.
The 771-metre drilling program at Golden Pond also confirmed that mineralization at the target is associated with sulphide-bearing quartz veins hosted mainly in gneiss rock and extends locally into amphibolite units. A geological structure known as the Goldfields Syncline crosses under the property.
14-year life
The updated PEA for Goldfields, released last fall, outlines a 14-year life with an after-tax net present value (at a 5% discount) of $610 million and a 44% after-tax internal rate of return. Initial capital costs are estimated at $301 million (US$220.2 million) and life-of-mine all-in sustaining costs at US$1,330 per oz., based on an assumed US$2,600 base-case gold price. The open-pit mine could produce 4,950 tonnes per day.
An accompanying resource for the Box and Athona targets totals 24 million indicated tonnes at 1.28 grams gold for 990,000 oz. gold and 7.4 million inferred tonnes at 0.9 gram gold for 210,000 oz. gold.
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