Eskay Mining Corp (TSX-V:ESK, OTCQX:ESKYF) announced that its 2023 diamond drill and exploration campaign at its Eskay gold project in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle has resulted in the discovery of new precious-metal-rich volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits.
At the Cumberland VMS target, several drill holes encountered “very promising” precious and base metal-rich stockwork and massive mineralization.
Highlights from the drill results included 3.02 grams per ton (g/t) gold, 68.66 g/t silver, 0.24% copper, 0.73% lead and 4.86% zinc (6.28 g/t gold equivalent) over 15m, including 8.48 g/t gold, 103.27 g/t silver, 0.23% copper, 1.08% lead and 4.16% zinc (12.02 g/t gold equivalent) over 3.41m in hole CBL23-28.
Hole CBL23-29 returned 1.21 g/t gold, 29.22 g/t silver, 0.12% copper, 0.32% lead and 2.94% zinc (2.96 g/t silver equivalent) over 22.52m, including 3.45 g/t gold, 108.21 g/t silver, 0.65% copper, 0.54% lead and 19.4% zinc (13.24 g/t silver equivalent) over 1.75m.
Given the strong drill results and historic rock chip sampling results in the Cumberland-Mahogany ridge area, Eskay Mining said it views it as “highly prospective” for further precious metal-rich VMS discoveries and sees it as a high-priority exploration target.
Eskay Mining’s vice president of exploration John DeDecker described Cumberland as “a very compelling and unique target.”
He said intense polymetallic sulfide mineralization ranged from stockwork-style to massive seafloor-hosted mineralization and the seafloor-hosted mineralization is associated with barite breccia, capped by a non-mineralized and highly magnetic pillow basalt.
“Drilling and field investigations have defined the orientation of the mineralized seafloor horizon and have shown that silver anomalies in historic soil samples, and a pronounced magnetic anomaly evident in the 2021 electromagnetic survey lie along the trend of mineralization extending at least 300m south of Cumberland,” DeDecker said in a statement.
“Our team looks forward to investigating this area further in 2024.”
Additionally, Eskay said that near the end of the exploration season, its exploration team found outcrops of metal-rich VMS mineralization adjacent to the eastern margin of the Bruce Glacier in an area called Scarlet Knob.
The company said drilling here encountered strong and precious base metals and combined with the surface discovery of high-grade precious and base metal mineralization provides evidence for a larger VMS system in this area.
At the Tarn Lake area, four drill holes encountered short to moderate-length intervals of mineralization and two holes encountered short high-grade intervals of 4.84 g/t gold and 8.14 g/t silver (4.94 g/t gold equivalent) over 2m in TN23-14 and 7.83 g/t gold and 6.96 g/t silver (7.92 g/t gold equivalent) over 2.45m in TN23-16.
“The confirmation of another mineralized seafloor horizon at Scarlet Knob, and extensive disseminated gold mineralization at Tarn Lake opens these areas up to targeted exploration in 2024,” DeDecker said.
Eskay Mining is 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.
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