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

Ascot Resources Ltd. May 25 published from the first 44 holes of its 2017 drill program at Premier, a gold-silver project near Stewart British Columbia that includes the historical Premier Mine. Many of these initial holes were drilled at Northern Lights, a zone that was largely unrecognized until preliminary drill testing by Ascot in 2016.

Highlights from drilling at Northern Lights include 12.13 meters of 10.4 grams per metric ton gold in hole P17-1242; and 7.5 meters of 9 g/t gold in P17-1267.

Ascot said current drilling shows this gently northwest dipping zone to have continuous higher grade mineralization over a present strike length of more than 250 meters with a typical dip length that exceeds 200 meters.

Ascot said several visible gold intersections have been cut in this zone, which remains open.

The company currently has three rigs testing and expanding the central area of this main Northern Lights zone.

The company is also cutting nice gold intervals at the adjacent Northern Lights West zone. One such hole, P17-1227, cut 10 meters averaging 4.05 g/t gold.

Ascot also reported high-grade results from the down-dip extension of the 602 zone, including 6.05 meters of 30.65 g/t gold in hole P17-1273.

Ascot currently has six drills turning at Premier.

As of May 25, the company had completed 25,000 meters of drilling in 81 holes this year at Premier.

Roughly 140,000 meters of surface drilling is planned at the northwestern B.C. property in 2017.

In addition to the surface drilling, Ascot said it plans to complete roughly 27,000 meters of underground drilling aimed at defining reserves in the Lunchroom, Obscene and 602 zones this year.

The company is seeking to establish an initial reserve of 600,000 to 750,000 oz of gold in these zones that could be mined in the near term.

-SHANE LASLEY