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

Skeena Resources Ltd. Dec. 12 released the final results from the 2016 drill program at its Spectrum-GJ and announced the start of s preliminary economic assessment for this newly expanded gold-copper property in the Golden Triangle of northwestern British Columbia.

This year's program included 2,872 meters of drilling in eight holes at the Donnelly deposit on the GJ side of the property and 6,279 meters in 22 holes at the Central zone on the Spectrum side of the property.

In 2015, Skeena cut a deal to buy full ownership of the GJ copper-gold property from Teck Resources Ltd. and NGEx Resources Inc. Situated just east of Spectrum, the company's original exploration asset, GJ was considered a complimentary property.

To further the synergies between these gold-copper properties, Spectrum recently acquired a 50 percent working interest in three mineral claims by purchase agreement with Colorado Resources Ltd. The purchase of these rights makes the GJ and Spectrum properties contiguous and will allow for simpler exploration, development and access permitting in the future.

The expanded Spectrum-GJ property now totals 43,410 hectares (107,270 acres) and extends as far as Highway 37 and the Northwest Transmission Line.

At the onset of 2016, Skeena reported the Donnelly and North Donnelly deposits at GJ now host 133.67 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 0.32 percent (940.23 million pounds) copper and 0.36 g/t (1.56 million ounces) gold.

Skeena said several of the holes drilled this year at Donnelly have successfully extended the mineralized zone to depth, with gold and copper values higher than the current average resource grades. One such hole, GJ16-245, cut 102.3 meters grading 0.47 g/t gold and 0.29 percent copper.

This year's drilling on the Spectrum side of the property focused on a panel of porphyry gold-copper mineralization on the west and south side of the Central zone, which previously had sparse drill coverage historically due to topographic constraints and difficult drilling conditions.

This year's program cut thick intervals of low to moderate-grade gold-copper mineralization, as predicted by geological interpretation. One such hole, S16-095, cut 224.9 meters grading 0.79 g/t gold and 0.12 percent copper beginning at a depth of 23.2 meters.

Other highlight holes include S16-090, which cut 62.2 meters grading 0.97 g/t gold and 0.20 percent copper; S16-092, with 69 meters grading 0.73 g/t gold and 0.20 percent copper; and S16-077, with 73 meters grading 0.97 g/t gold and 0.26 percent copper.

In April, Skeena published a maiden resource for the Central zone at Spectrum that included 8.95 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 1.04 grams per metric ton (290,000 ounces) gold, 6.58 g/t (1.8 million oz.) silver and 0.11 percent (20.8 million pounds) copper; and 22.63 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 1.03 g/t (750,000 oz.) gold, 3.85 g/t (2.8 million oz.) silver and 0.11 (54.9 million lbs.) copper.

The company said this year's drilling will allow for estimation of mineral resources within the western portion of Central zone, part of which was previously counted as waste or low-grade inferred mineralization in the 2016 NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate, due to lack of drilling. This should increase the tonnage of run-of-mine mineralized material and reduce the strip ratio on mining. The gold-copper mineralization in Spectrum Central Zone occurs in a moderately west-dipping panel with a strike length of 1,600 m in a north-south direction, and up to 240 m in true thickness. It is open below the limit of drill testing at 250 m to 450 m down dip, or a maximum of 400 m below surface.

Metallurgical, mineral resource modelling, mining and environmental studies are underway that will provide the basis for a preliminary economic assessment for Spectrum, which is scheduled to be completed in the second quarter of next year.

-SHANE LASLEY