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

Golden Predator Mining Corp. July 11 said it has begun a 1,500-meter drill program at Brewery Creek to evaluate the suitability of continuous vat leaching for gold recovery and to expand the resource at this past-producing gold mine about 55 kilometers (34 miles) east of Dawson City, Yukon.

A 2014 preliminary economic assessment outlined plans for a heap-leach operation at Brewery Creek that would produce an estimated 372,000 ounces of gold over a nine-year span. This includes mining 10.2 million metric tons of open-pit material from eight deposits averaging 1.35 grams per metric ton gold and reprocessing material located on the heap leach pad operated by the previous operator of the mine.

Under this scenario, mining and crushing would occur for 230 days per year.

The PEA includes 14.2 million metric tons of indicated oxide resources averaging 1.27 g/t (577,000 ounces) gold and 9.3 million tons of inferred oxide resources averaging 0.93 g/t (279,000 oz) gold. In addition, the resource estimate contains 3.5 million metric tons of indicated sulfide resources averaging 1.28 g/t (142,000 oz) gold and 12.4 million metric tons of inferred sulfide resources averaging 1.37 g/t (546,000 oz) gold.

This year's drill program will generate large diameter cores for metallurgical testing to assess the viability of continuous vat leaching for both the oxide and sulfide resources evaluated in the 2014 PEA.

Continuous vat leaching utilizes large volume containers, described as vats, located in an enclosed temperature-controlled building, as opposed to heap leach technology, which involves stacking ore on pads in the open environment. The vat technology provides the opportunity to recover gold from some sulfide resources not amenable to heap leaching; greater saturation of the leaching solution; potentially improved recoveries of gold from the oxide resource; substantially shorter processing times; full year-round operations; and improved environmental considerations.

Golden Predator said the use of vat recovery at Brewery Creek indicates the potential for improved recoveries, bring a larger portion of the resource base into the mine plan; improved environmental controls; and more robust project economics.

To further evaluate the potential of vat recovery, the 2018 program will include about 500 meters of drilling that will twin metallurgical holes drilled in 2016, as well as holes used in previous column leach testing reported in the 2014 PEA. Whole core from this drilling will be submitted to SGS Canada for testing.

In addition to the metallurgical test holes, this year's program at Brewery Creek will include 1,000 meters of exploration drilling on recently identified high priority targets designed to extend known mineralization.

Recent analysis has identified several new high priority exploration targets not previously drilled on the property. The drill program will test potential extension of mineralization outside of previously drilled or mined areas including:

• A 400-meter gap between the Golden and Lucky pits;

• a higher-grade zone from the Lucky pit through the Bohemian zone;

• potential extension of the Sleeman zone;

• a soil anomaly extending northeast from the Schooner Zone;

• Apparent 3,000-meter-long zone linking the Schooner and Sleeman zones; and

• near surface projections of the deeper Lone Star zone mineralization.

This program at Brewery Creek 2018 accounts for roughly 15 percent of Golden Predator's 2018 exploration budget with the balance focused on exploration of the high-grade 3 Aces gold project in southeast Yukon.

–SHANE LASLEY