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

Ascot Resources Ltd. Sept. 19 reported high-grade gold intercepts from drilling down-dip of historically mined areas at the past producing Premier Mine about 25 kilometers (16 miles) northwest of Stewart, British Columbia.

An underground mine at Premier produced 2 million oz of gold and 45 million oz of silver from 1918 to 1952; and an open-pit operation in the 1990s produced another 260,000 oz of gold and 5.1 million oz of silver.

The mill, assay lab, crusher, tailing storage area, underground workings and other infrastructure from historical mining remain on the property.

Ascot's drilling in the immediate Premier Mine area is focused on expanding the higher-grade underground resource.

Toward this goal, Ascot drilled five holes in a gap identified in the resource at the 602 zone, which the company views as one of the most robust resource areas of the Premier deposit. This zone is also located near the 1990s-era mill facilities, which will be advantageous for the resumption of mining.

Ascot said all five holes intersected quartz breccia and stockwork hosting gold mineralization.

The best hole, P19-2013, cut 8.43 meters averaging 24.45 g/t gold and 43.2 g/t silver. This is one of the most robust mineral intercepts in the Premier deposit so far. In the immediate footwall to the high-grade gold and silver, P19-2013 tapped a 15.5-meter-thick sulfide breccia zone averaged 2.45 g/t gold, 91.5 g/t silver, 10.9 percent zinc and 3.28 percent lead.

Ascot notes that significant base metals were recovered as byproducts during historical mining at Premier.

Other highlights from the 602 zone drilling include:

• 7.01 meters of 7.34 g/t gold 6.9 g/t silver in P19-2009;

• three meters of 3.45 g/t gold and 50.8 g/t silver in P19-2010; and

• eight meters of 3.25 g/t gold and 7.4 g/t silver in P19-2012.

"The Premier mine continues to deliver high-grade gold mineralization," said Ascot Resources President and CEO Derek White.

Derek White

In addition to drilling in the immediate mine area, Ascot's expansive 2019 drill program also focused on upgrading and expanding the high-grade gold resources across two other deposit areas – Big Missouri Ridge and Silver Coin – across the 100-square-kilometer (39 square miles) land package at Premier.

The company is also testing new grassroots targets it has identified across the property.

"With only 50 percent of assay results received from over 45,000 meters of drilling completed this season on the property, we continue to anticipate strong results through Q4 (fourth quarter) 2019," said White. "Additionally, we are very excited about several of our property-wide, grassroot exploration targets currently being drilled."

–SHANE LASLEY