Seabridge Gold’s strong assays define Snip North

High-grade results from drilling at Seabridge Gold’s (TSX: SEA; NYSE: SA) Iskut project in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle have confirmed the continuity and size of the Snip North target and spurred the company to add 3,000 metres to its drill program. Shares rose.

Highlight hole SN-25-30 cut 104.3 metres grading 1.55 grams gold per tonne, 0.25% copper and 4.5 grams silver from 390 metres depth, including 57.6 metres at 2.62 grams gold, 0.4% copper and 3 grams silver, Seabridge reported Monday.

“A core zone may be emerging within this mineralized envelope showing strong gold and copper grades that we see continuing for hundreds of meters in our drill logs,” Seabridge Chair and CEO Rudi Fronk said in a release. “We will achieve the density of drilling projected to be necessary for a maiden resource and we are confident of announcing a mineral resource estimate for Snip North early next year based on this drill program.”

The results from an 18,000-metre program follow similarly high-grade intersections just over one month ago at Snip North that extended the target’s footprint. The summer has been a particularly busy drilling season for several explorers in the Golden Triangle, whose southern edge is near the town of Stewart.

Seabridge shares gained 7.5% to $28.03 apiece by mid-Monday in Toronto, for a market capitalization of $2.86 million. The stock has traded in a 12-month period of $13.44 to $28.39.

Possible porphyry area

Hole SN-25-30 has potentially cut a porphyry intrusion linked with the wider system in line with the program’s objectives, Seabridge said.

Another noteworthy hole, SN-25-28, returned 513 metres grading 0.42 gram gold, 0.13% copper and 1.9 grams silver from 25 metres depth, including 32 metres at 1.05 grams gold, 0.25% copper and 4.2 grams silver.

And hole SN-25-29 cut 342.5 metres at 0.64 gram gold, 0.1% copper and 1.1 grams silver from 298 metres depth, including 35.7 metres grading 0.85 gram gold, 0.16% copper and 2.1 grams silver.  

1,800 metres of mineralization

The results have shown the presence of steeply north-and-west-plunging copper-gold mineralization featuring potassic alteration and porphyry stockwork veining over a strike length of 1,800 metres.

Snip North lies about 30 km by air from the company’s main KSM project, which could mean Snip North is a satellite deposit to KSM. Snip North could feed into a central mill and processing facility.

KSM, one of the world’s largest undeveloped gold-copper projects, has 12 billion tonnes of economic resources across five deposits. It now has an after-tax net present value of $15 billion at spot metal prices, Fronk told The Northern Miner in a recent interview.