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

Pretium Resources Inc. June 18 reported some impressive high-grade results from the 83 holes completed during the second phase of North Block resource expansion drilling at Brucejack, even by the Bonanza grade standards of this gold mine in British Columbia's Golden Triangle.

Going into 2021, the Valley of the Kings deposit at Brucejack hosted 11.5 million metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 8.7 grams per metric ton (3.2 million ounces) gold and 9.8 g/t (3.6 million oz) silver.

Pretium has identified several expansion targets immediately surrounding Valley of the Kings, including North Block, which has been the target of extensive drilling this year.

Following the success of an initial phase of resource expansion drilling at North Block, Pretium carried out a 22,964-meter second phase of drilling at this target directly north of Valley of the Kings.

Completed from the 1150 and 1070 levels of the underground mine, this second phase of North Block drilling targeted an area extending up to 450 meters north of the current Valley of the Kings resource.

Five drill intercepts from this drilling returned grades topping g/t gold. Bonanza-grade highlights from this drilling include:

• 19.5 meters averaging 306.6 g/t gold in VU-2932, including a one-meter subsection averaging 5,910 g/t gold and 3,400 g/t silver.

• 15 meters averaging 561.5 g/t gold in hole VU-2933, including a one-meter subsection averaging 8,400 g/t gold and 4,900 g/t silver.

• 51 meters averaging 31.6 g/t gold in VU-2859, including a one-meter subsection averaging 1,515 g/t gold.

• 14 meters averaging 191.6 g/t gold in VU-2962, including a one-meter subsection averaging 1,795 g/t gold and 1,375 g/t silver.

"These impressive results confirm high-grade gold mineralization in the North Block Zone and further extend the potential of the Valley of the Kings deposit at Brucejack," said Pretium Resources President and CEO Jacques Perron. "Based on the success of the second phase, we have initiated a third and fourth phase of the drill program to further delineate the potential of the North Block zone."

Phase 3 of the program will infill between the existing drill fans into North Block and the newly designed fourth phase of the program will test an area immediately to the northwest of the current drilling.

The North Block drilling is part of a larger roughly 195,000-meter resource upgrade and expansion program being carried out at Brucejack this year.

After the fourth phase of North Block drilling and resource expansion at the 1080 level near the bottom of the Valley of the King resources, two of the rigs drilling underground will be repositioned to complete a 13,000-meters resource expansion program from the surface at Gossan Hill, which lies about 900 meters north of Valley of the Kings.

At the Bridge zone, which lies about 300 meters south of Valley of the Kings, Pretium plans to complete another 11,000 meters of underground resource expansion drilling beginning in late August.

A surface exploration program starting this month will include two rigs testing near-mine targets not immediately connected to Valley of the Kings.

While this exploration drilling will start at the Shore and SG zones, the primary target is a 10,000-meter drill program to follow up on the discovery of epithermal style gold mineralization at Hanging Glacier, which lies about four kilometers (2.5 miles) northwest of Valley of the Kings.

Highlights from the 2020 drilling at Hanging Glacier include:

Pretium Resources Inc.

• 129.9 meters averaging 0.95 g/t gold, including three meters of 11.09 g/t gold in hole BR-111.

• 295.4 meters averaging 0.51 g/t gold, including six meters of 4.93 g/t gold in BR-120.

• 102 meters averaging 2.1 g/t gold, including 13 meters of 9.55 g/t gold in BR-132.

• 117 meters averaging 0.82 g/t gold, including nine meters of 3.08 g/t gold in BR-137.

In addition to drilling, the exploration program will include a drone magnetic survey, geophysical surveys, soil sampling, and prospecting over the 4,000-meter-long trend from Brucejack to Hanging Glacier.

Author Bio

Shane Lasley, Publisher

Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.

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