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

Alexco Resource Corp. owns a number of mineral properties that blanket nearly the entire historic Keno Hill Silver District of central Yukon Territory, including the Bellekeno silver-zinc-lead mine.

The company began commercial production at Bellekeno early in 2011. However, in 2013 the company temporarily suspended operations due to lower silver prices.

Since the idling of the mill, Alexco has focused on exploration and development of some of the other deposits on the larger Keno Hill property.

The company budgeted C$3.3 million for a 15,500-meter surface drill program to expand upon the high-grade silver at Bermingham, a newly discovered deposit where silver grades are measured in kilograms per metric ton.

One 2015 hole drilled in the high-grade Bear zone cut 4.98 meters (true width) averaging 7,462 g/t (7.46 kg/t) silver. The hole was drilled immediately to the northeast and adjacent to the previously outlined Bermingham deposit, which hosts 377,000 metric tons of indicated resource averaging 430 g/t (5.2 million oz.) silver.

One hole drilled this year, K-16-0608, cut 7.5 meters true width of 2,715 g/t silver, including 2.4 meters of 6,391 g/t silver.

A new Bermingham resource that includes the Bear zone is to be included in an updated preliminary economic assessment, which also will include revised and optimized development and mining plans for the company's Flame & Moth, Bellekeno and Lucky Queen deposits.

In July, Alexco began preparations for the installation of an underground portal at the Flame & Moth mine, along with establishing necessary surface infrastructure to drive the first 20 meters of the production ramp, allowing for the resumption of development activities to begin at full-scale in the future. This ramp will ultimately be driven some 750 meters to the upper production levels of Flame & Moth, a deposit near the district mill that hosts roughly 585,000 metric tons of potentially mineable material grading 693 g/t silver, 5.35 percent zinc, 2.19 percent lead and 0.52 g/t gold.

Alexco continues to monitor global markets as it assesses when to resume mining the expanding high-grade silver deposits across its Keno Hill Silver District property.

"Clearly, we are encouraged by the continued strength of the silver markets and, pending results of our Bermingham drilling program we will be well-positioned to consider redevelopment options at Keno Hill," Alexco President and CEO Clynt Nauman said.

-SHANE LASLEY