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

Ascot Resources Ltd. Jan. 15 announced a 60 percent increase in the amount of gold in the indicated resource at its Premier gold-silver mine project near the mining town of Stewart, British Columbia.

According to the new calculation, the four deposits at Premier – Silver Coin, Premier, Big Missouri and Martha Ellen – now hosts 4.14 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 8.01 grams per metric ton (1.07 million ounces) gold and 35.1 g/t (4.67 million oz) silver.

This 60 percent increase in gold reporting to the indicated resource category at Premier is the result of roughly 53,000 meters of drilling completed on the property during 2019, which included approximately 43,000 meters of infill drilling aimed at upgrading the resources at Big Missouri, Silver Coin and Premier.

"I am pleased with our progress and the large increase in tonnage, grade and contained gold and silver in the indicated category at the Premier gold project," said Ascot Resources President and CEO Derek White.

Ascot's newly acquired Silver Coin deposit, which is located about five kilometers (three miles) north of the past producing mill at Premier, has emerged as the largest contributor to the project's overall indicated resource.

Silver Coin now hosts 1.6 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 7.61 g/t (390,000 oz) gold and 23 g/t (1.18 million oz) silver. This is an 86 percent increase in the tonnage and 76 percent increase in the contained gold at Silver Coin, compared to the end of 2018.

The 2019 drilling more than doubled the indicated resource for Big Missouri, a deposit about 800 meters north of Silver Coin. Big Missouri now hosts 1.12 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 8.36 g/t (300,000 oz) gold and 16.9 g/t (607,000 oz) silver. This is a 107 percent increase in the tonnage and 111 percent increase in gold contained in the indicated resource at Big Missouri, compared to the late-2018 calculation.

While the Premier indicated resource did not increase as dramatically, this deposit remains the highest grade outlined so far at the project. Premier now hosts 1.3 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 8.46 g/t (353,000 oz) gold and 64.2 g/t (2.68 million oz) silver. While the Premier indicated tonnage only increased by 4 percent, higher grades pushed the total amount of gold contained in the indicated resource category up 26 percent.

The Premier property has more than a century of mining history and the property already has the basic infrastructure needed to quickly and efficiently resume production.

An underground mine at Premier produced 2 million ounces 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 provides Ascot with a head start on its plans to restart mining around Stewart.

"Our principal business objective is to maximize the utilization of the existing infrastructure, specifically with regard to the mill throughput of up to 3,000 tonnes (metric tons) per day," White said earlier this year.

Toward this goal, the company will incorporate the Premier updated resource into a feasibility level study that will investigate the economic viability of resuming gold and silver production from its properties near Stewart.

In addition to the resources on the properties in the immediately vicinity of the Premier mill, the company's Red Mountain project about 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) to the southwest add substantially to Ascot's gold and silver resource in the Stewart area.

According to an October calculation, Red Mountain hosts 3.19 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 7.63 g/t (782,600 oz) gold and 21 g/t (2.2 million oz) silver.

Together, the deposits at Premier and Mountain now host 1.85 million oz of gold and 6.8 million oz of silver in the measured and indicated categories.

Ascot Resources Ltd.

"We convincingly achieved our goal of rapidly creating a strong base of measured and indicated resources as the basis for developing a mine plan for the project," said White. "We have scheduled the release of our feasibility study by the end of March 2020."

In addition to the measured and indicated resources that will serve as the foundation for this feasibility study, Premier and Red Mountain continue to host significant amounts of gold and silver in the lower confidence inferred category.

Premier hosts 5.06 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 7.25 g/t (1.18 million oz) gold and 28.7 g/t (4.7 million oz) silver; and Red Mountain hosts 405,400 metric tons of inferred resource averaging 5.32 g/t (69,300 oz) gold and 7.33 g/t (95,500 oz) silver.

–SHANE LASLEY