North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Pretium Resources Inc. plans to begin mining the high-grade gold from the Valley of the Kings deposit of its Brucejack gold-silver project in northwestern British Columbia by 2017.

The junior achieved two key permitting milestones - obtaining a provincial Environmental Assessment Certificate and a positive Environmental Assessment Decision Statement from the federal Minister of the Environment - in 2015.

Once in production, a high-grade underground operation at Valley of the Kings is expected to produce 7.3 million ounces of gold over an 18-year mine life, or roughly 404,000 oz of gold annually, according to a feasibility study completed in 2014. This mine plan is based on 13.6 million metric tons of reserves averaging 15.7 grams per metric ton (6.9 million oz) gold.

In September, Pretium secured a US$540 million financing package that will fund a significant portion of the costs to develop this mine at Brucejack.

To confirm the style and grade distribution of the gold mineralization where mining is slated to begin, the company completed a 40,000-meter underground infill drill program in the Valley of the Kings. This drilling continued to cut visible and high-grade gold.

Highlights include: 13.75 meters grading 164.54 g/t gold uncut in hole VU-422; 10 meters of 259.48 g/t gold uncut in hole VU-423; 10.98 meters of 156.02 g/t gold uncut in hole VU-424; and 15 meters of 83.89 g/t gold uncut in hole VU-426.

In addition to infill drilling, Pretium began a 10,000- to 15,000-meter grassroots exploration program targeting porphyry and epithermal-style mineralization east of the Brucejack project. This program began with drilling at Flow Dome, a zone about 1,000 meters east of the Valley of the Kings.

Pretium said high-grade intersections along with long intervals of low-grade mineralization encountered in the first holes drilled at Flow Dome suggest a new stockwork zone or an extension of the Valley of the Kings deposit.

Kitchenview, a zone further to the northeast of the pending underground mine is another target drilled this year.

In August, Pretium optioned the King Tut, Tuck and Silver Crown West properties from Teuton Resources Corp. for C$1.8 million in cash payable over four years. Teuton will retain a 2 percent net smelter return royalty in the properties with no buyback.

These gold-silver prospective properties lie south of Brucejack.

Pretium also owns the Snowfield project, a longer term bulk tonnage project to the north of Brucejack.

Snowfield hosts 1.37 billion metric tons of measured and indicated resources containing 25.9 million oz of gold, 75.8 million oz of silver, 2.98 billion pounds of copper, 258.3 million lbs of molybdenum and 22.5 million oz of rhenium. The project also has considerable resources reporting to the inferred category.

Pretium maintains a confidentiality and cooperation agreement with Seabridge Gold, whose KSM project shares a common boundary with Snowfield.

-SHANE LASLEY