The newest mine in B.C.'s Golden Triangle remains on pace to pour its first gold later this month.

Ascot Resources Ltd. April 5 began feeding ore into the mill at Premier, marking the official start of a new era of production at this historical gold-silver operation on Nisga'a Nation Treaty Lands at the southern tip of British Columbia's prolific Golden Triangle.

Ascot Resources Ltd.

Premier, which lies about 15 kilometers (nine miles) north of Stewart, B.C., is home to a past-producing gold mine that last operated in the 1990s.

Expanding upon and upgrading infrastructure from the past operation, Ascot has established a modern mine at Premier that is expected to produce roughly 1.1 million ounces of gold and 3 million oz of silver over the next eight years.

This new era of Premier mining is based on 3.63 million metric tons of probable reserves averaging 5.45 grams per metric ton (637,000 oz) gold and 19.1 g/t (2.23 million oz) silver within the Silver Coin, Big Missouri, and Premier deposits; plus 2.55 million metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 6.52 g/t (534,000 oz) gold and 20.6 g/t (1.69 million oz) silver at Red Mountain, which is on a separate property about 20 kilometers (12 miles) to the southeast.

Now, ore stockpiled from the Big Missouri Mine is being fed into the mill.

"The start of ore processing is a momentous achievement for the whole team at Ascot and an exciting milestone for the company," said Ascot Resources President and CEO Derek White. "Most project construction activities are substantially completed, and commissioning activities are ongoing throughout the processing plant with the aim of pouring first gold this month."

To help prevent gold from getting embedded in grooves and crevices, the mill was padded with ground material from waste rock processed through the grinding circuit beginning on March 31. Once this commissioning step was completed, the grinding system was re-torqued, and gold-bearing ore was introduced.

Now that ore is being processed, commissioning activities are focused on the remaining components of the plant.

With recovery circuit commissioning underway and the tailings storage facility, new water treatment plant, tailings thickener, and pipeline systems ready for operations, the Premier gold mine has all the pieces in place to reach its first gold pour as it ramps up to commercial production.

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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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