Mr. Walter Coles Jr. reports
SKEENA ANNOUNCES DISCOVERY OF NEW 23 ZONE AT ESKAY CREEK: 2.33 G/T AUEQ OVER 59.91 METRES AND 1.08 G/T AUEQ OVER 90.00 METRES
Skeena Resources Ltd. has discovered a significant zone of near-surface, footwall-style mineralization, the 23 zone. This new zone is outside the limits of the company's current pit-constrained mineral resources at the Eskay Creek gold-silver project located in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia. Analytical results from the recently completed drill holes are detailed in this release.
New 23 zone discovery highlights:
- 0.99 gram per tonne gold and 6.5 g/t silver (1.08 g/t gold equivalent) over 90.00 metres (SK-21-945);
- 1.30 g/t Au and 31.4 g/t Ag (1.72 g/t AuEq) over 43.39 m (SK-21-946);
- 2.14 g/t Au and 14.6 g/t Ag (2.33 g/t AuEq) over 59.91 m (SK-21-947).
Gold equivalent (AuEq) was calculated via the formula: Au (g/t) plus (Ag (g/t) divided by 75). True widths and zone geometries cannot be definitively determined at this time. Grade capping of individual assays has not been applied to the Au and Ag assays informing the length-weighted AuEq composites. Metallurgical processing recoveries have not been applied to the AuEq calculation and are taken at 100 per cent. Samples below detection limit were nulled to a value of zero.
New 23 zone discovered outside current resources
Situated beyond the extents of the currently defined pit-constrained resources at Eskay Creek, the company has discovered a new zone of near-surface Au-Ag mineralization beginning only 15 m vertically below surface. This new 23 zone was revealed by Q4 2021 drilling as part of the continuing regional exploration program.
Positioned 200 m east of the high-grade 21A zone, the area was historically drilled from surface by previous operators on widely spaced drill centres. Selective drill hole sampling during this era meant that the discovery of the larger and more robust mineralized widths observed as a result of the 2021 drilling program were missed historically. This lack of non-continuous historical sampling is evidenced by 2021 drill hole SK-21-947, which intersected 2.14 g/t Au and 14.6 g/t Ag (2.33 g/t AuEq) over 59.91 m only metres away from historical 1990 drill hole CA90-511, which due to non-continuous sampling only reported 1.97 g/t AuEq and 0.84 g/t AuEq over 2.00 and 8.00 m, respectively.
Mineralization in the 23 zone is almost exclusively hosted within dacitic volcanic rocks and to a lesser degree, the overlying lower mudstone unit. As such, the Au-Ag tenor is consistent with that observed in footwall mineralization elsewhere on the property (21A, 21B, 21C and 22 zones). Concentrations of the epithermal suite of elements (arsenic, mercury and antimony) are negligible, as is the case with this style of footwall mineralization across Eskay Creek.
Drilling to date indicates a shallow, westerly dipping geometry and the 23 zone remains open for expansion in all directions. Proximity to surface, in addition to the grades and widths of this evolving zone, is a perfect complement to the existing mine plan and potential throughput expansion.
22 zone and eastern limb targets
Drilling along the southeastern strike extension of the 22 zone was performed on 50 m spacings. Most notably, 2021 drill hole SK-21-927 intersected 3.39 g/t Au and 4.8 g/t Ag (3.45 g/t AuEq) over 21.55 m in the even lower mudstone (ELM) approximately 200 metres southeast of the 22 zone. This broader interval included a visible-gold-bearing subinterval grading 59.10 g/t Au and 61.5 g/t Ag (59.92 g/t AuEq) over 0.65 m and 19.55 g/t Au and 7.4 g/t Ag (19.65 g/t AuEq) over 0.95 m.
Gold-in-soil anomalies supported by geological considerations were targeted by nine drill holes on the eastern limb of the property. Despite intersecting highly altered host rocks, no significant grades were returned in these specific locations.
Current status -- exploration
The regional exploration drilling program was designed to pragmatically test near-surface targets across the property with the goal of delineating additional near-surface resources to supplement the existing mine plan. To date, 72 drill holes totalling 12,890 m have been completed representing about 37 per cent of the budgeted 35,000 m drill program. The outstanding metreage will be drilled once the Albino waste facility drill program has been completed in the second quarter of 2022.
About Skeena Resources Ltd.
Skeena Resources is a Canadian mining exploration and development company focused on revitalizing the formerly producing Eskay Creek gold-silver mine located in Tahltan territory in the Golden Triangle of northwestern British Columbia, Canada. The company released a prefeasibility study for Eskay Creek in July, 2021, which highlights an open-pit average grade of 4.57 g/t AuEq, an after-tax NPV5 (net present value at a 5-per-cent discount) of $1.4-billion, 56-per-cent IRR (internal rate of return) and a 1.4-year payback at $1,550 (U.S.)/ounce Au. Skeena is currently completing both infill and exploration drilling to advance Eskay Creek to full feasibility study in Q1 2022.
Qualified persons
Exploration activities at the Eskay Creek project are administered on site by the company's exploration managers, Raegan Markel, PGeo, and John Tyler, and director of exploration Adrian Newton, PGeo. In accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, Paul Geddes, PGeo, vice-president, exploration and resource development, is the qualified person for the company and has prepared, validated and approved the technical and scientific content of this news release. The company strictly adheres to CIM (Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum) best practices guidelines in conducting, documenting and reporting the exploration activities on its projects.
Quality assurance/quality control
Once received from the drill and processed, all drill core samples are sawn in half, labelled and bagged. The remaining drill core is subsequently securely stored on site. Numbered security tags are applied to lab shipments for chain-of-custody requirements. The company inserts quality control (QC) samples at regular intervals into the sample stream, including blanks and reference materials with all sample shipments to monitor laboratory performance. The QA/QC program was designed and approved by Lynda Bloom, PGeo, of Analytical Solutions Ltd., and is overseen by the company's qualified person, Mr. Geddes.
Drill core samples are submitted to ALS's analytical facility in North Vancouver, B.C., for preparation and analysis. The ALS facility is accredited to the International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission 17025 standard for gold assays and all analytical methods include quality control materials at set frequencies with established data acceptance criteria. The entire sample is crushed and one kg is pulverized. Analysis for gold is by 50 g fire assay fusion with atomic absorption (AAS) finish with a lower limit of 0.01 part per million and upper limit of 100 ppm. Samples with gold assays greater than 100 ppm are reanalyzed using a 50 g fire assay fusion with gravimetric finish. Analysis for silver is by 50 g fire assay fusion with gravimetric finish with a lower limit of five ppm and upper limit of 10,000 ppm. Samples with silver assays greater than 10,000 ppm are reanalyzed using a gravimetric silver concentrate method. A selected number of samples are also analyzed using a 48-multielement geochemical package by a four-acid digestion, followed by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) and also for mercury using an aqua regia digest with inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) finish. Samples with sulphur reporting greater than 10 per cent from the multielement analysis are reanalyzed for total sulphur by Leco furnace and infrared spectroscopy.
ESKAY CREEK PROJECT 2021 EXPLORATORY DRILLING
CAMPAIGN LENGTH-WEIGHTED DRILL HOLE COMPOSITES
Hole ID From To Sample length Au Ag AuEq
(m) (m) (m) (g/t) (g/t) (g/t)
SK-21-894 85.00 85.50 0.50 0.40 14.0 0.59
SK-21-894 96.15 100.31 4.16 0.47 18.8 0.72
SK-21-895 20.75 22.71 1.96 0.17 25.4 0.51
SK-21-895 115.40 115.98 0.58 1.81 19.3 2.07
SK-21-895 133.50 134.64 1.14 0.83 5.2 0.90
SK-21-895 160.56 163.40 2.84 0.37 21.8 0.67
SK-21-895 223.52 224.37 0.85 0.57 3.2 0.61
SK-21-895 236.50 239.00 2.50 1.97 2.9 2.01
SK-21-895 284.20 287.00 2.80 3.06 7.9 3.17
SK-21-896 22.63 23.20 0.57 1.96 37.4 2.46
SK-21-896 46.14 49.00 2.86 0.56 7.5 0.66
SK-21-896 65.00 68.46 3.46 6.73 22.5 7.03
including 66.50 67.50 1.00 21.50 43.1 22.07
SK-21-896 79.00 80.00 1.00 0.63 18.8 0.88
SK-21-896 141.38 158.00 16.62 0.72 6.0 0.80
SK-21-896 186.50 187.50 1.00 1.01 6.8 1.10
SK-21-896 212.25 213.50 1.25 0.63 2.2 0.66
SK-21-897 19.50 20.98 1.48 0.63 16.2 0.85
SK-21-897 35.50 46.40 10.90 1.04 24.4 1.37
SK-21-897 97.18 98.08 0.90 0.42 69.5 1.35
SK-21-898 35.00 36.09 1.09 0.60 67.9 1.51
SK-21-898 120.05 121.00 0.95 0.23 31.2 0.65
SK-21-911 pending
SK-21-912 abandoned
SK-21-913 81.83 82.50 0.67 0.56 24.3 0.88
SK-21-913 93.50 101.00 7.50 0.34 5.4 0.41
SK-21-914 134.91 138.29 3.38 0.96 1.8 0.99
SK-21-922 pending
SK-21-923 pending
SK-21-924 pending
SK-21-925 33.00 35.45 2.45 0.97 1.5 1.00
SK-21-925 85.79 86.82 1.03 0.55 3.5 0.60
SK-21-925 94.17 95.59 1.42 0.94 22.8 1.24
SK-21-925 137.50 138.50 1.00 0.95 2.1 0.98
SK-21-926 32.50 37.00 4.50 1.24 2.5 1.27
SK-21-926 92.20 96.20 4.00 0.48 19.1 0.73
SK-21-926 150.50 153.50 3.00 2.68 0.6 2.68
SK-21-927 13.95 35.50 21.55 3.39 4.8 3.45
including 14.90 15.55 0.65 59.10 61.5 59.92
and 15.55 16.50 0.95 19.55 7.4 19.65
SK-21-927 83.50 85.00 1.50 0.69 2.0 0.72
SK-21-927 94.00 97.00 3.00 0.88 4.9 0.94
SK-21-927 144.00 145.05 1.05 1.56 1.1 1.57
SK-21-928 14.50 36.00 21.50 0.58 1.5 0.59
SK-21-928 178.00 179.00 1.00 1.02 2.4 1.05
SK-21-929 20.80 23.50 2.70 0.64 1.7 0.66
SK-21-929 59.75 66.00 6.25 0.52 4.2 0.57
SK-21-929 111.00 117.00 6.00 0.67 3.6 0.72
SK-21-929 139.00 140.50 1.50 0.52 0.5 0.52
SK-21-929 194.50 196.00 1.50 0.79 0.5 0.79
SK-21-930 105.00 110.87 5.87 1.35 10.5 1.50
SK-21-930 120.50 125.00 4.50 0.56 0.5 0.56
SK-21-930 132.50 134.00 1.50 0.58 0.5 0.58
SK-21-931 pending
SK-21-932 NSA
SK-21-933 203.50 204.00 0.50 0.65 3.3 0.69
SK-21-933 216.00 216.50 0.50 0.49 15.9 0.70
SK-21-934 NSA
SK-21-935 NSA
SK-21-936 NSA
SK-21-937 pending
SK-21-938 NSA
SK-21-939 31.45 38.65 7.20 0.26 10.1 0.39
SK-21-940 61.60 65.30 3.70 0.26 6.4 0.35
SK-21-940 112.00 112.50 0.50 0.37 21.0 0.65
SK-21-941 16.50 18.00 1.50 1.66 0.8 1.67
SK-21-941 52.00 64.92 12.92 0.69 8.9 0.81
SK-21-942 48.00 49.00 1.00 0.60 4.5 0.66
SK-21-942 100.62 105.00 4.38 0.54 4.4 0.59
SK-21-942 119.00 141.50 22.50 0.55 0.6 0.55
SK-21-942 167.63 168.50 0.87 0.57 0.6 0.58
SK-21-943 8.00 9.50 1.50 0.56 9.1 0.68
SK-21-943 67.50 78.00 10.50 0.36 0.9 0.37
SK-21-944 42.00 54.57 12.57 0.46 16.8 0.69
SK-21-944 114.23 123.50 9.27 1.05 4.8 1.11
SK-21-944 132.50 152.50 20.00 0.64 7.1 0.73
SK-21-944 188.00 190.05 2.05 0.51 22.4 0.81
SK-21-945 22.00 112.00 90.00 0.99 6.5 1.08
including 22.00 23.15 1.15 17.95 23.1 18.26
SK-21-945 119.50 136.00 16.50 0.61 1.5 0.63
SK-21-946 29.00 72.39 43.39 1.30 31.4 1.72
SK-21-946 80.00 101.50 21.50 0.59 2.2 0.62
SK-21-946 112.00 118.00 6.00 0.62 1.6 0.64
SK-21-947 44.58 104.49 59.91 2.14 14.6 2.33
including 56.00 57.00 1.00 21.90 57.1 22.66
and 57.00 58.00 1.00 19.30 50.5 19.97
SK-21-947 123.43 124.00 0.57 0.50 19.5 0.76
SK-21-947 172.50 173.50 1.00 0.56 13.8 0.74
Gold equivalent (AuEq) calculated via the formula: Au (g/t) plus (Ag (g/t) divided by 75). True
widths and zone geometries cannot be definitively determined at this time. Grade capping of
individual assays has not been applied to the Au and Ag assays informing the length-weighted
AuEq composites. Metallurgical processing recoveries have not been applied to the AuEq calculation
and are taken at 100 per cent. Samples below detection limit were nulled to a value of zero.
We seek Safe Harbor.
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