Banyan wraps drilling at Aurex-McQuesten

Banyan Gold Corp. July 16 announced the completion of a 1,000-meter drill program at its Aurex-McQuesten gold project near the community of Mayo, Yukon.

Banyan had two objectives for its 2019 exploration program at Aurex-McQuesten; to continue to define and increase confidence within the McQuesten gold zone mineralization with infill drilling; and test a largely undrilled target area 1,000 meters south of the McQuesten zone, on the Aurex claim block, that is interpreted to exhibit similar geological and geochemical characteristics to McQuesten.

This new target area has the potential to host the same grade, tenor and volume of mineralization as the McQuesten Gold Zone and is one of several high priority targets on the greater Aurex-McQuesten claim package.

The company completed 494 meters of diamond drilling in four holes targeting the projected extension of an interpreted higher-grade zone of gold mineralization at McQuesten.

This drilling builds on the 2018 program which defined the Block 1 area of mineralization over a strike length of 500 meters.

Highlights from the 2017 and 2018 drilling at Block 1 include:

• 68.3 meters of 0.42 grams per metric ton gold from 22.7 meters in DDH MQ-17-24;

• 96.4 meters of 0.74 g/t gold from 5.8 meters in DDH MQ-17-26;

• 107.7 meters of 0.66 g/t gold from 33.7 meters in DDH MQ-17-29;

• 80.8 meters of 1.06 g/t gold from 10.1 meters in DDH MQ-18-30;

• 113 meters of 0.74 g/t gold from 63.5 meters in DDH MQ-18-34;

• 76.5 meters of 0.49 g/t gold from 57.5 meters in DDH MQ-18-36; and

• 94.9 meters of 0.64 g/t gold from 8.9 meters in DDH MQ-18-37.

The goal of the four holes drilled into the McQuesten zone this year is to prepare the drill plan to expand this block of mineralization from 500 to 1,000 meters, as well as increase grade.

Banyan said four distinct styles of mineralization were observed during this drilling that, when combined, emphasize the validity of the McQuesten mineralization model.

"The 2019 exploration work has allowed Banyan to complete work necessary to expand and understand the mineralized McQuesten Zone, in preparation for future drilling and exploration work to define a resource on the property, positioning Banyan well for the improving market for gold," said Banyan Gold President and CEO Tara Christie. "Our largest shareholders, Alexco Resource Corporation and Victoria Gold, concur with our exploration plan and have amended our option agreements so exploration can focus on generating shareholder value."

The company completed another 504 meters of diamond drilling in four holes over a newly developed priority target area at Aurex.

Additionally, two trenches, with a total linear length of 170 meters, were excavated, mapped and sampled on the Aurex-McQuesten targets, adding to the delineation of on-surface gold mineralization identified on the Aurex-McQuesten property.

Assays from the 2019 drilling and trenching are pending.

Aurex-McQuesten is just 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Victoria Gold's Eagle Gold mine which has recently completed construction and is scheduled to produce first gold in September. Victoria continues an aggressive exploration campaign on their Potato Hills gold mineralized trend to the northwest of Aurex-McQuesten. The McQuesten zone is located just 100 meters west of the main Yukon Government highway between Mayo and Keno and just 50 meters north of the all-season road to Victoria Gold. A powerline from the hydroelectric dam in Mayo passes through the property, as well as the switching station and spur power line to the Eagle Gold Mine.

"The Aurex-McQuesten property, is extremely well located from both gold mineralization and infrastructure vantage points; with existing government-maintained highways and three phase power- transecting a mature mining camp. Early metallurgy suggests the mineralization is amenable to surface extraction, bulk tonnage, cyanide leach techniques, underscored by the fact the McQuesten gold deposit daylights at surface," said Christie.

–SHANE LASLEY