Skeena expands 21A zone at Eskay Creek with new in-pit discovery

Skeena Resources (TSX: SKE) has received the final drill results from its 2021 regional and near-mine exploration programs at the Eskay Creek gold-silver project. This drilling was designed to follow up on the company’s resource category conversion drilling performed in early 2021.

The new results were highlighted by exploratory drill hole SK-21-997, which returned high-grade gold mineralization averaging 8.78 grams gold per tonne and 13 grams silver per tonne (8.95 grams gold-equivalent per tonne) over 34.00 metres.

This intersection is located 60 metres west of Skeena’s current 21A zone pit-constrained resource. The mineralization remains open for expansion 120 metres to the north, and already occurs within the limits of the contemplated open-pit from the 2021 prefeasibility study, which showed open-pit reserves of 3.88 million ounces at 4.57 grams gold-equivalent per tonne contained in 26.4 million tonnes.

The proposed layout for the Eskay Creek open pit as per the 2021 PFS. Credit: Skeena Resources.

Importantly, the high-grade gold and essentially negligible silver concentrations in this new discovery is uncharacteristic of rhyolite hosted mineralization at Eskay Creek.

“Due to a lack of drilling, this new discovery which expands the 21A zone to the west, was considered waste rock in the currently proposed PFS reserve pit area,” Paul Geddes, Skeena’s vice president of exploration and resource development, noted. “We will work to expand and infill drill the 21A West zone and potentially bolster the pit-constrained resources surrounding this newly discovered mineralization.”

Additional mineralization has also been discovered between the 21A and 23 zones, highlighted by drill hole SK-21-972, which intersected three intervals averaging 1.29 grams gold per tonne, 36 grams silver per tonne (1.76 grams gold-equivalent per tonne) over 14.50 metres; 0.79 gram gold per tonne, 26 grams silver per tonne (1.14 grams gold-equivalent per tonne) over 21.11 metres; and 1.14 grams gold per tonne, 23 grams silver per tonne (1.45 grams gold-equivalent per tonne) over 13.50 metres.

These intervals are hosted within the footwall dacite series as is the case with the 23 zone, which was discovered in January and later expanded. The 23 zone is considered a significant near-surface, footwall-style zone of mineralization that lies outside the pit-constrained resources at Eskay Creek.

The Eskay Creek property is located within the Golden Triangle of British Columbia. It is host to a high-grade historic mine that produced 3.3 million ounces of gold and 160 million ounces of silver at average grades of 45 grams gold per tonne and 2,224 grams silver per tonne from 1994 to 2008.