The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - February 16, 2024
Dolly Varden completed 51,454 meters of resource expansion, upgrade, and exploration drilling last year at its Kitsault Valley gold-silver project in Northern British Columbia.
Dolly Varden Silver Corp. Feb. 12 reported that its 2023 drilling discovered a high-grade gold zone extending off the northwest end of the Homestake Silver deposit on the north side of the company's Kitsault Valley project in Northern British Columbia.
Lying about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of Stewart, B.C., the 63-square-mile (163 square kilometers) Kitsault Valley project is made of two adjacent properties – the Dolly Varden silver property on the south end and the more gold-enriched Homestake Ridge property to the north.
Four deposits associated with past producing mines on the Dolly Varden end of Kitsault Valley – Torbrit, Dolly Varden, Wolf, and North Star – host 3.42 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 299.8 grams per metric ton (32.93 million ounces) silver; plus 1.29 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 277 g/t (11.45 million oz) silver.
Homestake Ridge, which lies 5.5 kilometers (3.5 miles) northwest of the northernmost Dolly Varden deposit, hosts three deposits with 736,000 metric tons of indicated resource averaging 7.02 g/t (165,993 oz) gold and 74.8 g/t (1.8 million oz) silver; plus 5.55 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 4.58 g/t (816,719 oz) gold and 100 g/t (17.8 million oz) silver.
Dolly Varden's 2023 program at Kitsault Valley included 51,454 meters of drilling focused on expanding mineralization at and between the Dolly Varden and Homestake Ridge deposits.
The latest batch of assays is from resource expansion drilling at Homestake, along with exploration drilling across the wider Kitsault Valley project.
"Whether we discover new zones of high-grade gold at Homestake Ridge or expand the large, wide and high-grade silver deposits at Wolf and Torbrit, drilling continues to deliver results from the premier, undeveloped gold-silver trend in Canada," said Dolly Varden Silver CEO Shawn Khunkhun.
As its name suggests, Homestake Silver is the most silver-rich of the three deposits included in the Homestake Ridge resource. It also happens to be the largest, hosting 3.35 million metric tons of the Homestake Ridge inferred resource averaging 3.13 g/t (337,013 oz) gold and 146 g/t (15.7 million oz) silver.
In January, Dolly Varden released results from 23 resource expansion holes at Homestake Silver. Highlights from that batch of holes include:
• 55.9 meters averaging 2.32 g/t gold and 54 g/t silver in hole HR23-407, including 10.72 meters averaging 8.94 g/t gold and 191 g/t silver.
• 22.8 meters averaging 5.11 g/t gold and 206 g/t silver in hole HR23-415, including 6.8 meters averaging 43.4 g/t gold and 1,020 g/t silver.
• 93.95 meters averaging 1.74 g/t gold and 213 g/t silver in hole HR23-416, including 9.16 meters averaging 13.16 g/t gold and 3,085 g/t silver.
• 79.2 meters averaging 2.57 g/t gold and 102 g/t silver in hole HR23-419, including 9.22 meters averaging 9.53 g/t gold and 718 g/t silver.
The latest results from step-out drilling demonstrate the potential to boost both the gold grade and quantity at Homestake Silver.
Highlights from the latest batch of results from four step-out holes at Homestake Silver include:
• 12.45 meters averaging 79.49 g/t gold and 60 g/t silver in hole HR23-389, including 0.68 meters averaging 1,335 g/t gold and 781 g/t silver.
• 57.7 meters averaging 2.68 g/t gold and 20 g/t silver in hole HR23-399, including 1.75 meters averaging 40.33 g/t gold and 418 g/t silver.
• 6.61 meters averaging 10.17 g/t gold in hole HR23-410, including 0.62 meters averaging 50.7 g/t gold.
"The new high-grade gold and silver mineralization encountered in step out drilling to the northwest of Homestake Silver represents a significant breakthrough in further defining, upgrading and expanding the mineralization at Homestake Ridge," said Dolly Varden Silver Vice President of Exploration Rob van Egmond. "This new zone remains open to the northwest, projecting towards the Homestake Main deposit."
The company also reported results from 26 resource upgrade and expansion holes drilled at Homestake Main. Highlights include:
• 83.51 meters averaging 1.22 g/t gold and 1.9 g/t silver in hole HR23-374, including two meters averaging 18.75 g/t gold.
• 2.5 meters averaging 18.14 g/t gold and 30 g/t silver in hole HR23-386, including 0.5 meters averaging 69.9 g/t gold and 42 g/t silver.
• 50.3 meters averaging 1.92 g/t gold and 3.58 g/t silver, in hole HR23-390, including 0.5 meters averaging 129 g/t gold and 218 g/t silver.
In addition to high-grade gold assays from Homestake, Dolly Varden reported results from 18 holes testing exploration targets across the wider Kitsault Valley property.
Six of the holes tested exploration targets west and south of Homestake Silver. This drilling turned up numerous veins and breccias with lower-grade gold in the structures west of Homestake Silver.
Another 12 holes tested exploration targets in three main areas at the Dolly Varden end of Kitsault Valley – Red Point, North Star, and Wolf.
Three holes were drilled at the Red Point prospect about 10 kilometers (six miles) southeast of the Homestake Ridge deposits and just 500 meters west of the northern end of the Kitsol silver deposit at Dolly Varden.
The best hole at Red Point cut 13.1 meters averaging 1.92 g/t gold, including 2.3 meters averaging 7.25 g/t gold and 1.12% copper.
Another two holes were drilled at the North Star deposit, which lies about 800 meters southeast of Red Point.
The best hole at North Star cut 18.1 meters averaging 199 g/t silver, 1.21% zinc, and 1.28% lead.
The company plans to carry out follow-up drilling this year at the North Star deposit, which remains open to the west down dip.
At the end of the 2023 season, Dolly Varden drilled five holes to test below the plunge of the broad, higher-grade silver zone at Wolf. This drilling intersected low silver grades and increased zinc and lead values, typical of below and outside of the plunge of a high-grade silver zone.
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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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