Skeena samples high grades from Eskay Creek waste dump

Even the waste dumps at the former Eskay Creek gold mine have high grades. Skeena Resources (TSX: SKE; OTCQX: SKREF) recently drilled 190 metres at the Albino waste facility using an air rotary rig from the frozen surface.

Here are the assays from the first four of eight planned holes:

• 16.0 metres grading 4.17 g/t gold or 6.31 g/t gold equivalent;
• 12.2 metres grading 4.18 g/t gold or 6.72 g/t gold equivalent;
• 22.8 metres grading 4.16 g/t gold or 6.89 g/t gold equivalent; and
• 19.8 metres grading 3.13 g/t gold or 4.82 g/t gold equivalent.

The Albino waste facility is a subaqueous repository of both mill tailings and mine waste rock.

Skeena noted that historical underground development was driven through the often-mineralized rhyolite footwall below the contact mudstone. The grades were not considered economic at the low gold prices in the 1990s.

Beginning in 1994 and for the next 14 years, the mine produced 3.3 million oz. of gold and 160 million oz. of silver. Eskay Creek was among the richest gold mines in the world when average mined grades were 56 g/t gold and 2,224 g/t silver.

Earlier this year, Skeena estimated the measured and indicated resource to be 38.5 million tonnes grading 3.1 g/t gold and 82.1 g/t gold, containing 3.9 million oz. of gold and 101.6 million oz. of silver. The inferred resource was estimated to be 5.7 million tonnes grading 1.3 g/t gold and 27.4 g/t silver, containing 231,000 oz. of gold and 5.0 million oz. of silver.

Read the 2019 Eskay Creek preliminary economic assessment at www.SkeenaResources.com.