Mr. Mac Balkam reports
ESKAY MINING CORP. ANNOUNCES FIRST TARGETS IN ITS 5,000 METER DRILL PROGRAM ON ITS COREY-ESKAY PROPERTY IN BRITISH COLUMBIA'S GOLDEN TRIANGLE
Eskay Mining Corp. has released details of its 5,000-metre diamond drilling program scheduled to commence in July, 2026.
Primary focus of the drilling will be around surface rock samples yielding high gold and copper values in the Vermillion and TM area (see news release dated Nov. 7, 2025) -- an area of very high prospectivity because it lies proximal to an intersection of two important mineralization trends, namely:
- The south-southwest corridor hosting six porphyry copper-gold deposits from Goldstorm in the north to Kerr in the south, suggesting a deep crustal structure which runs past Vermillion and TM.
- The Stuhini-Hazelton unconformity, also known as The Kyba Red Line, which has been documented as having many of British Columbia's major deposits within two kilometres of its location.
Work in this area during the 2024 and 2025 exploration seasons successfully confirmed a combined two-kilometre-by-1.5-kilometre zone of planar, flat-lying to shallowly dipping mineralized veins encompassing both the Vermillion and TM target zones. Recent glacial ablation has provided access to new outcrop exposures, revealing significant gold mineralization that remained hidden in the past.
Because of that steepness only very limited channel sampling is possible, but this was nevertheless undertaken in 2025. While the results showed only low levels of gold in the vein host rocks, the limited channel lengths possible (less than two metres either side of the veins) led to the conclusion that continuous core sampling of the vein-mineralized zones is required both to determine vein geometry and to measure trends in trace element pathfinders for gold and copper.
Considerations driving the decision to drill these targets are therefore:
- The high gold grades attainable by the veins: Surface sampling of veins at TM has returned grades as high as 287 grams per tonne Au, while the Vermillion zone has yielded vein sample results as high as 297 g/t Au.
- Visible gold: Field teams identified visible gold in various hand specimens from both the TM and vermillion targets. Visible gold can imply positive metallurgy should a discovery be made.
- Expansion potential: Both targets remain open for expansion laterally and at depth, where they may be connected to a common source.
- Targeting the source: Drilling will test the continuity and density of these gold-bearing veins below surface to gain an understanding of their 3-D architecture and to provide multielement data for use in vectoring toward potential economic feeder zones.
While not discounting copper porphyry affinities expected from proximity to the Goldstorm-Kerr corridor, Eskay's technical team has noted similarities between the TM-Vermillion gold-mineralized veins and Goliath Resources' Surebet deposit which is understood to be a reduced intrusion-related gold (RIRG) deposit.
Like Surebet, the TM and Vermillion targets are characterized by:
- Proximity to Eocene-aged intrusions: Mineralization at Eskay may be linked to the neighbouring Lee Brant stock, which is believed to be Eocene in age, mirroring the Eocene intrusions considered causative at Surebet.
- Vein morphology: The shallow-dipping, planar and sheeted morphology of the gold-bearing quartz veins at Eskay is a characteristic of intrusion-related systems.
- Elemental associations: High-grade gold at both projects is associated with a distinct geochemical signature, including strong correlations between gold, silver, bismuth, tellurium and tungsten.
Consequently, the exploration team will be siting its boreholes and evaluating their results with all three deposit models as targets: porphyry copper and gold, transitional epithermal-porphyry gold (such as Brucejack), and reduced intrusion-related gold.
Because of the higher elevation of the TM and Vermillion targets, and the merits of waiting for snow to clear before locating their drill platforms, Eskay will start its season by drilling two promising volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) targets at lower elevation in the C-10 prospect area, with up to 500 m budgeted per hole.
Borehole EM26-01, with a collar elevation of 1,156 m and a pierce point elevation of 877 m, will target a combined chargeability and conductivity anomaly in the Hazelton formation, followed by borehole EM26-02 (collar elevation 1,270 m and pierce point at 1,039 m) which will penetrate a similar target one kilometre to the east.
The company's drilling and surface mapping team will operate from Goldstorm Metals Corp.'s Electrum camp, accessing drills sites by daily helicopter flights. All drill core will be orientated, and will be transported on a regular basis to the company's core processing and analytical facility in Stewart. All drill core will then be cut by a diamond saw and the cuttings composited every three metres for analysis by the company's detectORE system for gold and by portable X-ray fluorescence for a host of major and trace elements. All samples yielding material levels of gold, gold pathfinder elements, copper or other potentially-economic elements will be sent to ALS Global's laboratory in North Vancouver for independent analysis.
Clinton Smyth, chief geologist, stated: "It is very pleasing to announce this drilling program which is targeted on the underexplored, yet hugely prospective, southern portion of our property. However, it is not the only work we are doing. In anticipation of the 27 km road currently being built by Seabridge Gold Inc. through the centre of our property we are preparing all our historical exploration data for re-evaluation ahead of the 2027 exploration season. All our surface sampling data has already been transferred to the Mantle database system, along with most of our drilling data. We have almost completed uploading all our core photos into Seequent's Imago System. We have compiled our most important geophysical survey data into Geoscience Analyst, which we use alongside Leapfrog and QGIS for thorough, multidisciplinary, re-evaluation of all historical data. And we are quietly evaluating which of the many available AI tools we should employ during the fall. This summer is going to be an exciting time. Next summer is going to be even better."
Qualified person
Clinton Smyth, PGeo, chief geologist for the company, a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical contents of this news release.
About Eskay Mining Corp.
Eskay Mining is a TSX Venture Exchange-listed company, headquartered in Toronto, Ont. Eskay is an exploration company focused on the exploration and development of precious and base metals along the Eskay rift in a highly prolific region of northwest British Columbia known as the Golden Triangle, 70 kilometres northwest of Stewart, B.C. The company currently holds mineral tenures in this area comprising 177 claims (52,600 hectares).
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