Pretium Resources Inc. Oct. 25 announced that its 2021 exploration drilling has cut bonanza-grade gold mineralization at Golden Marmot, a discovery zone about 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) northwest of the Valley of the Kings deposit on the company's Brucejack property in Northern British Columbia.

"Initial results from Golden Marmot are exciting and affirm the district-scale potential of the Brucejack property," said Pretium Resources President and CEO Jacques Perron.

Golden Marmot lies about 1,750 meters east of Hanging Glacier, a zone of bulk tonnage gold mineralization discovered with drilling in 2020. Both zones are part of a four-kilometer (2.5 miles) trend of highly altered rocks with outcrop that extends from Hanging Glacier to the Bridge Zone southeast of the Brucejack Mine.

"The gold mineralization intersected at Golden Marmot occurs in the same host rocks and with the same alteration signature as the nearby Valley of the Kings deposit, which is a strong indication it could be a new high-grade deposit," Perron added. "Its proximity and existing trail access would make it relatively easy to integrate into future mine plans as an independent source of ore to supply the Brucejack mill."

Drilling completed at Golden Marmot in 2011 cut 17.3 meters averaging 2.8 grams per metric ton gold, including a 1.3-meter subsection grading 23 g/t gold.

Pretium's 2021 exploration drill program at Golden Marmot consisted of 26 drill holes totaling 8,466 meters.

Highlights from the first nine holes drilled this year include:

• 38 meters averaging 22.8 g/t gold, including 2.1 meters averaging 188.4 g/t gold in hole SU-772.

• 53.5 meters averaging 72.5 g/t gold, including 0.5 meters averaging 6,700 g/t gold and 3,990 g/t silver in hole SU-786.

• 5.8 meters averaging 46.1 g/t gold, including one meter averaging 208 g/t gold in hole SU-778.

"These results continue to support our view that additional deposits and sources of high-grade mineralization will be identified near the Valley of the Kings deposit opening up the potential for a significantly longer mine life and continued impressive cash flow generation," Perron said.

The company says this year's drilling at Golden Marmot has cut high-grade gold mineralization over a zone that is roughly 150 meters wide, 250 meters long, and extends to a depth of 275 meters. The gold mineralization encountered in the 2011 hole drilled at Golden Marmot was 225 meters below the currently drilled zone, indicating the size potential of this discovery.

"The Golden Marmot zone remains open and could be of similar size to the Valley of the Kings deposit," Perron said. "We are eagerly awaiting the assay results from the remaining 17 drill holes which we expect to release early next year."

Accessible via an exploration trail from the Brucejack camp, Golden Marmot is marked by a prominent gossan (intensely oxidized and weathered rock) on the hillside. Over the previous two seasons, Pretium geologists have carried out prospecting that includes the collection of rock samples with up to 8.73 g/t gold.

To help refine targets for the 2021 exploration drilling at Brucejack, Pretium engaged GoldSpot Discovery Corp. to synthesize the geochemical, geophysical, and hyperspectral data available from the property. This prospectivity mapping and target ranking initiative program identified 65 targets across the 123,000-hectare (303,900 acres) property, with Golden Marmot ranking as a high priority drill target for quartz vein-hosted gold mineralization.

Pretium Resources Inc.

"Golden Marmot is only the first of several zones drill tested this year with results still to come from Gossan Hill, Bridge Zone and Hanging Glacier," said Perron. "All of these targets have the potential to deliver game-changing results and are within four kilometers of the Brucejack Mine infrastructure. We look forward to continuing to grow the potential of this exceptional property and will release results as they become available."

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Shane Lasley, Publisher

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