Double silver at Bermingham good for Keno

Alexco Resource Corp. Sept. 20 reported that drilling over the past two years has nearly doubled the amount of silver contained in the high-grade Bermingham deposit at the company's Keno Hill Silver District project in the Yukon.

Bermingham now hosts 1.65 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 628 grams per metric ton (33.35 million ounces) silver, 1.3 percent (48.69 million pounds) zinc, 1.6 percent (57.89 million lb) lead and 0.12 g/t (6,120 oz) gold.

This represents a 93 percent increase in both the tonnage and ounces of silver reporting to this resource compared to a resource calculated in January 2017.

Alexco also reports a similar increase to the inferred resource at Bermingham.

According to the new calculation, Bermingham hosts 616,550 metric tons of inferred resource averaging 526 g/t (10.44 million oz) silver, 0.9 percent (11.62 million lb) zinc, 1.1 percent (14.41 million lb) lead and 0.12 g/t (2,300 oz) gold.

While the inferred tonnage increased by 180 percent, the grade dropped by 32 percent, resulting in a 92 percent net gain in the amount of silver reporting to inferred resource compared to the beginning of 2017.

With this growth at Bermingham, Alexco's district-wide indicated mineral resources at Keno Hill increased by approximately 24 percent from 67.9 million oz to 84 million oz of contained silver. Similarly, district-wide inferred mineral resources increased by 28 percent to 23 million oz of contained silver.

"The majority of the tonnage in the Bermingham deposit resides in the Arctic and Bear Zones where approximately 28 million of the 33 million indicated ounces of silver are located at an average grade of approximately 700 g/t silver," said Alexco Resource Chairman Clynt Nauman. "Looked at in total, the Bermingham deposit is now emerging as one of the larger discoveries in the Keno Hill district, characterized by more than 1.6 million tonnes (metric tons) of indicated mineralization with an average silver grade approximately 25 percent higher than our Flame & Moth deposit."

A pre-feasibility study for the resumption of operations at Keno Hill is underway and the new Bermingham resource will be taken into consideration during the mine planning work associated with the PFS, which is scheduled for completion in October.

"Both the completed resource update and the pre-feasibility study represent the next steps in moving the Keno Hill District back toward production," said Nauman.

At the same time, Alexco is making progress on permitting. Following the Yukon government's July issuance of a positive decision on the environmental assessment for development and production at Bermingham, the company filed applications for the water licenses needed to resume operations.

–SHANE LASLEY