19:01:29 EDT Thu 28 Mar 2024
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or Name
USA
CA



Skeena Resources Ltd (4)
Symbol SKE
Shares Issued 65,501,884
Close 2022-03-08 C$ 15.71
Market Cap C$ 1,029,034,598
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Skeena drills 34 m of 8.95 g/t AuEq at Eskay Creek

2022-03-09 10:03 ET - News Release

Mr. Walter Coles Jr. reports

SKEENA ANNOUNCES 21A WEST ZONE EXPANSION DISCOVERY AT ESKAY CREEK INCLUDING 8.95 G/T AUEQ OVER 34.00 METRES

Skeena Resources Ltd. has released the final drilling results from the 2021 regional and near mine exploration programs at the Eskay Creek gold-silver project in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia. Analytical results from the recently completed drill holes are detailed in this release.

New 2021 exploration program highlights:

  • 1.29 grams per tonne gold, 36 g/t silver (1.76 g/t gold equivalent (AuEq)) over 14.50 m (SK-21-972);
  • 0.79 g/t Au, 26 g/t Ag (1.14 g/t AuEq) over 21.11 m (SK-21-972);
  • 1.77 g/t Au, 200 g/t Ag (4.44 g/t AuEq) over 11.73 m (SK-21-983);
  • 0.78 g/t Au, 120 g/t Ag (2.39 g/t AuEq) over 11.50 m (SK-21-985);
  • 8.78 g/t Au, 13 g/t Ag (8.95 g/t AuEq) over 34 m (SK-21-997).

New in-pit discovery expands 21A zone

Following up on resource category conversion drilling performed in early 2021, exploratory drill hole SK-21-997 intersected high-grade gold mineralization averaging 8.78 g/t Au, 13 g/t Ag (8.95 g/t AuEq) over 34 m located 60 m west of Skeena's current 21A zone pit-constrained resources. Hosted entirely within the rhyolite sequence, this new mineralization is only 30 m vertically below surface. This discovery remains open for expansion 120 m to the north and already occurs within the limits of the contemplated open-pit from Skeena's 2021 prefeasibility study (PFS). The high-grade gold and essentially negligible silver concentrations in this new intersection is uncharacteristic of rhyolite hosted mineralization at Eskay Creek.

"Due to a lack of drilling, this new discovery which expands the 21A zone to the west, was considered waste rock in the currently proposed PFS reserve pit area," notes Paul Geddes, PGeo, the company's vice-president of exploration and resource development. "We will work to expand and infill drill the 21A West zone and potentially bolster the pit-constrained resources surrounding this newly discovered mineralization."

Other near-mine targets

Additional mineralization has been discovered between the 21A and 23 zones highlighted by drill hole SK-21-972, which intersected three intervals averaging 1.29 g/t Au, 36 g/t Ag (1.76 g/t AuEq) over 14.50 m, 0.79 g/t Au, 26 g/t Ag (1.14 g/t AuEq) over 21.11 m and 1.14 g/t Au, 23 g/t Ag (1.45 g/t AuEq) over 13.50 m. These intervals are hosted within the footwall dacite series as is the case with the recently discovered 23 zone.

2022 exploration outlook

The company is anticipating a staged drilling start-up beginning in early Q2 2022, focusing on near-mine and regional targets that were not explored during the 2021 drilling program. Over all, 60,000 metres have been allocated to the 2022 exploration program which will continue to focus on supplementing the existing mine plan with additional near-surface mineralization amenable to open-pit mining methods and will be paralleled by exploratory drill testing of the deep Mudstone extensions north of the former Eskay Creek mine. Allocation of metrage will remain results-driven. Expansion and delineation drilling will also occur in the new 21A West zone as well as the recently discovered 23 zone.

About Skeena Resources Ltd.

Skeena Resources is a Canadian mining exploration and development company focused on revitalizing the past-producing Eskay Creek gold-silver mine located in Tahltan territory in the Golden Triangle of northwest 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 grams per tonne gold equivalent, an after-tax net present value at a 5-per-cent discount of $1.4-billion, 56-per-cent internal rate of return and a 1.4-year payback at $1,550 (U.S.) per ounce Au. Skeena is currently completing both infill and exploration drilling to advance Eskay Creek to a full feasibility study in 2022.

Qualified person

Exploration activities at the Eskay Creek project are administered on site by the company's exploration managers, Raegan Markel, PGeo, 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 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 samples at regular intervals in the sample stream, including blanks and reference materials with all sample shipments to monitor laboratory performance. The QAQC program was designed and approved by Lynda Bloom, PGeo, of Analytical Solutions Ltd., and is overseen by the company's qualified person, Mr. Geddes, PGeo, vice-president of exploration and resource development.

Drill core samples are submitted to ALS Geochemistry's analytical facility in North Vancouver, B.C., for preparation and analysis. The ALS facility is accredited to the ISO/IEC (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 kilogram is pulverized. Analysis for gold is by 50-gram 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-gram fire assay fusion with gravimetric finish. Analysis for silver is by 50-gram 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 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.

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