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

With the goal of expanding the resource at AurMac to more than 3 million ounces of gold, Banyan Gold Corp.'s 2021 exploration consisted of a large and systematic step-out drill program at the Powerline deposit on this property about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Victoria Gold Corp.'s Eagle Gold Mine.

Since its maiden resource estimate in 2020, Banyan determined that AurMac hosts 52.6 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.54 grams per metric ton (903,945 oz) gold in two deposits – Airstrip and Powerline.

Airstrip hosts 46 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.52 g/t (774,926 oz) gold and Powerline hosts the remaining 6.6 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.61 g/t (129,019 oz) gold.

Considering the success of the systematic step-out drilling undertaken at Powerline throughout 2021, there is a strong possibility that inference may change from the massive expansion being done at Powerline, with the company stating an updated resource calculation is slated for the second quarter of the year.

This calculation will include results from the 2020 exploration at AurMac, which focused on Airstrip, and 2021 drilling, which focused on Powerline.

Highlights form the 2020 Airstrip drilling include:

• 47.7 meters of 1.02 g/t gold in MQ-20-67.

• 116.4 meters of 0.75 g/t gold in MQ-20-71.

• 65.2 meters of 0.64 g/t gold in MQ-20-78.

• 114.8 meters of 0.59 g/t gold in MQ-20-82.

The more than 30,000 meters of drilling completed at AurMac during 2021 focused on the rapid expansion of the gold mineralized footprint at Powerline.

Splitting its focus between resource upgrade and expansion drilling, Banyan had two diamond rigs targeting prospective growth with its 100-meter step-out grid-based drilling, and one rig concentrating on tighter spaced drilling toward refinement of the gold continuity modeling of Powerline ahead of the projected resource calculation this year.

This includes expanding Airstrip toward Aurex Hill, which lies roughly 1,200 meters east of Powerline.

Aurex Hill covers a roughly 10-square-kilometer (3.9 square miles) area defined by a large, coincident gold- and arsenic-in-soil geochemical anomaly. Over 12,500 meters of historical rotary air blast drilling from 442 shallow holes, along with 15 diamond drill holes, have been performed at Aurex Hil.

During 2020, Banyan reported that drilling at Aurex had intersected a well-developed and pervasive oxidized footprint to depths of more than 40 meters.

Highlights from this drilling include 1.11 g/t gold over 17.9 meters from surface in AX-20-57 and 0.91 g/t gold over 20.5 meters from surface in AX-20-54.

The 5,000-meter initial phase of the 2021 drill program at Aurex Hill was planned to build on the success of the 2020 drilling, ultimately with the hopes of connecting the mineralized zone with the greater AurMac property.

As of the third-quarter update in November, assay results from drilling at Aurex Hill are pending, having been held up to the ongoing protracted process timelines at Yukon preparatory analytical laboratories.

Before labs got backlogged, Banyan did receive assays from early 2021 drilling at Powerline that tapped remarkably consistent gold mineralization in the south and east in the Powerline resource area.

Highlights from the early results include:

• 54.6 meters averaging 0.88 g/t gold from 80 meters in AX-21-66.

• 177.9 meters averaging 0.38 g/t gold from surface in AX-21-67.

• 46.6 meters averaging 0.75 g/t gold from 52.5 meters in AX-21-70.

• 81.2 meters averaging 0.55 g/t gold from a depth of 86.5 meters in hole AX-21-73.

• 56.6 meters averaging 0.73 g/t gold from 38.1 meters in AX-21-75.

By September, the systematic step-out drilling had impressively increased the area of known gold mineralization at Powerline by more than 650%.

"The ongoing results are steadily and strongly demonstrating the size potential of the Powerline deposit," said Banyan Gold President and CEO Tara Christie in late August. "It's extremely rare to outline a near-surface deposit of this size and tenor immediately adjacent to an existing highway, communications and power infrastructure."

The mineralization found there was interpreted to be associated with swaths of quartz veins dipping shallowly to the north and within pyrrhotitic horizons with a dip to the south. Thus, the combination of the two controls of gold mineralization equates to sub-horizontal mineralization envelopes at the current drill hole spacing.

The constancy in grade a widths persisted as Banyan continued to expand the Powerline footprint.

Additional results include:

• 81.4 meters averaging 1.03 g/t gold from 32 meters in hole AX-21-88.

Banyan Gold Corp.

Banyan Gold president & CEO Tara Christie and geologist Keagan Perry checking out some mineralized veins at AurMac.

• 50.3 meters averaging 0.7 g/t gold from 85.1 meters in AX-21-91.

• 110.7 meters averaging 0.62 g/t gold from 96.6 meters in AX-21-99.

• 144.8 meters of 0.74 g/t gold from a depth of 7.6 meters in hold DDH AX-21-101.

• 89.6 meters of 0.50 g/t gold from a depth of 6.4 meters in hole DDH AX-21-111.

Christie told Mining News that Aurex Hill and Airstrip have potential to add gold to the AurMac resources, but the exciting results being returned from Powerline have compelled the company to continue its 100-meter step out strategy of this 2019 discovery deposit.

Banyan's 2021 exploration season ended in December, with the company expected to resume its expansion drilling at Powerline early this year.