Ascot Resources Ltd. (TSX: AOT) (OTCQX: AOTVF) is pleased to announce the second batch of assay results from the 2023 exploration drill program at the Company’s Premier Gold Project, located on Nisga’a Nation Treaty Lands in the prolific Golden Triangle of northwestern British Columbia. These are the final results from surface drilling for in-fill and exploration purposes at the Prew Zone in the Premier deposit, southeast of the Premier mill.
Highlights from the drill results include:
Note: True widths are estimated to be between 75% to 90% of reported interval widths.
Derek White, President and CEO of Ascot commented, “With seven assays grading over an ounce per tonne gold in just these twelve holes, we are pleased with the high-grade tenor of the drill results, and better than expected sizes and grades in the Prew Zone. Development work recently commenced on the Premier portal and decline which will access the Prew Zone anticipated in early 2024 prior to mill start-up and initial gold production. Intercepting more high-grade gold in existing stope shapes and finding extensions and new lenses of mineralization is encouraging, especially for an area so near term in the mine plan. The Prew Zone of the Premier deposit will be Ascot’s second mining area and will help compliment the existing mining at the Big Missouri deposit, which was initially developed last year.”
For the 2023 exploration season, drilling was initially conducted on the Prew Zone, where mining is planned to begin at the Premier deposit. After completing 16 holes at Prew, drilling shifted to Big Missouri and the Day Zone where two drill rigs have since completed 5,368 metres of drilling in 62 drill holes. Assays for these holes are pending. The Company expects the 2023 drill campaign to conclude within the next ten days.
Following the first batch of four holes from the Prew Zone released on August 25, 2023, this release summarizes results from the remaining twelve holes totaling 4,360 metres drilled from two pads. The drill holes targeted stope shapes for additional pierce points, gaps between stopes due to previous drill patterns, and extensions along strike and up dip. An overview of drill hole locations is shown in Figure 1, a summary of assay results is shown in Table 1, and drill pad coordinates are provided in Table 2.
The first four drill holes from this year’s program targeted the eastern part of the Prew Zone, and these subsequent twelve holes continued towards the west. Mineralization was generally encountered at expected depths, as shown in Figures 2 and 3. High-grade gold mineralization was also intercepted in multiple drill holes within a known geological wireframe which exists below the existing stope shapes – boding well for the potential to add to the existing mine plan in this zone. This wireframe was intersected by hole P23-2480 at a depth of 290m, encountering visible gold and an assay grading 55.0 g/t Au over 1.0m, and by hole P23-2473 at a depth of 311m with an assay grade of 10.3 g/t Au over 1.0m.
Table 1 – Prew Zone drill results
Hole # | Azimuth /dip |
From (m) |
To (m) |
Width (m) |
Au (g/t) |
Ag (g/t) |
P23-2469 | -65/121 | 268.07 | 270.07 | 2.00 | 2.13 | 18.80 |
and | 299.58 | 301.58 | 2.00 | 2.35 | 3.90 | |
P23-2470 | -53/131 | 259.11 | 265.11 | 6.00 | 2.29 | 44.25 |
incl. | 259.11 | 260.11 | 1.00 | 4.45 | 6.60 | |
and | 275.11 | 277.29 | 2.18 | 5.28 | 86.85 | |
incl. | 276.20 | 277.29 | 1.09 | 7.84 | 95.20 | |
and | 321.30 | 326.60 | 5.30 | 4.32 | 8.15 | |
incl. | 325.30 | 326.60 | 1.30 | 8.77 | 14.90 | |
P23-2471 | -57/146 | 274.84 | 276.52 | 1.68 | 42.20 | 48.20 |
and | 294.52 | 302.50 | 7.98 | 7.09 | 16.60 | |
incl. | 300.53 | 301.53 | 1.00 | 30.10 | 63.10 | |
and | 324.76 | 336.76 | 12.00 | 1.70 | 2.57 | |
incl. | 330.76 | 332.76 | 2.00 | 2.64 | 2.80 | |
P23-2472 | -62/134 | 279.22 | 283.50 | 4.28 | 21.98 | 144.31 |
incl. | 279.22 | 280.27 | 1.05 | 85.80 | 548.00 | |
and | 332.50 | 337.00 | 4.50 | 1.75 | 4.51 | |
P23-2473 | -56/133 | 265.00 | 268.20 | 2.20 | 20.11 | 30.79 |
incl. | 266.00 | 267.00 | 1.00 | 41.40 | 56.10 | |
and | 311.49 | 312.49 | 1.00 | 10.30 | 4.60 | |
P23-2474 | -55/146 | 279.66 | 280.75 | 1.09 | 7.88 | 3.60 |
and | 284.82 | 285.82 | 1.00 | 14.65 | 17.00 | |
and | 297.91 | 298.74 | 0.83 | 4.27 | 23.40 | |
P23-2475 | -62/146 | 258.00 | 260.00 | 2.00 | 5.43 | 61.20 |
and | 278.13 | 285.00 | 6.87 | 18.93 | 393.86 | |
incl. | 281.00 | 282.00 | 1.00 | 46.90 | 88.90 | |
incl. | 282.00 | 283.30 | 1.30 | 42.75 | 79.70 | |
P23-2476 | -60/128 | 255.47 | 256.50 | 1.03 | 3.33 | 12.10 |
and | 283.92 | 287.00 | 3.08 | 2.08 | 5.05 | |
and | 318.82 | 321.33 | 2.51 | 28.45 | 17.90 | |
incl. | 318.82 | 320.00 | 1.18 | 55.00 | 19.60 | |
P23-2477 | -61/130 | 300.00 | 302.92 | 2.92 | 4.14 | 2.49 |
incl. | 300.00 | 301.28 | 1.28 | 7.45 | 3.00 | |
and | 322.80 | 326.80 | 4.00 | 1.44 | 3.10 | |
P23-2478 | -66/123 | 263.50 | 269.00 | 5.50 | 3.98 | 6.69 |
incl. | 265.50 | 267.50 | 2.00 | 5.59 | 4.80 | |
and | 276.10 | 278.09 | 1.99 | 2.70 | 4.19 | |
and | 291.00 | 301.75 | 10.75 | 5.04 | 10.01 | |
and | 297.00 | 301.75 | 4.75 | 8.68 | 16.88 | |
incl. | 298.91 | 300.43 | 1.52 | 12.95 | 17.70 | |
P23-2479 | -66/138 | 281.96 | 285.29 | 3.33 | 6.43 | 15.88 |
inc. | 283.35 | 284.13 | 0.78 | 24.40 | 57.50 | |
and | 314.83 | 318.08 | 3.25 | 2.21 | 1.87 | |
and | 325.66 | 326.74 | 1.08 | 2.42 | 4.50 | |
P23-2480 | -62/113 | 280.05 | 281.77 | 1.72 | 4.59 | 6.20 |
and | 290.14 | 294.00 | 3.86 | 23.24 | 26.31 | |
incl. | 291.14 | 292.14 | 1.00 | 55.00 | 52.70 |
Note: True widths are estimated to be between 75% to 90% of reported interval widths.
Figure 1 – 3D view of the drill pad locations and drill hole traces reported in this release.
Figure 2 – East looking 3D-cross section showing the drill holes reported in this release, drilled from pad 23PREW1.
Figure 3 – East looking 3D-cross section showing the drill holes reported in this release, drilled from pad 23PREW2.
Figure 4 – Visible gold in hole P23-2480, with a corresponding assay result of 55 g/t gold over 1.0m
Table 2 – Drill pad locations
Pad # | UTM N | UTM E | Elevation (masl) | Hole no. |
23PREW1 | 437178 | 6213198 | 576 | P23-2469 to P23-2475 |
23PREW2 | 437135 | 6213105 | 586 | P23-2476 to P23-2480 |
Qualified Person
Lawrence Tsang, P.Geo., the Company’s Exploration Manager provides the field management for the PGP exploration program. John Kiernan, P.Eng., Chief Operating Officer of the Company is the Company’s Qualified Person (QP) as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical contents of this news release.
Quality Assurance/Quality Control
Analytical work is being carried out by ALS Canada Ltd. Ascot’s quality-assurance and quality-control program includes the use of analytical blanks to monitor for cross contamination, certified reference material standards to assess analytical accuracy, and duplicate samples to quantify sampling precision. This is in addition to the internal quality assurance program employed by ALS.
Samples are dried and weighed by ALS. They are then crushed to 75% passing 2mm, with 250g split and pulverized to 85% passing 75µm. Samples are processed at the ALS preparation lab in Terrace and sent to ALS in North Vancouver for analysis. There, all samples are dissolved using four acid digestion with an ICP-AES finish and fire assay with AA finish for gold. Samples over 100ppm silver are digested with aqua regia and then volumetrically diluted before an ICP-AES or AA finish (up to 1,500ppm). Samples over 1,500ppm silver are fire assayed with a gravimetric finish. Samples over 10ppm gold are fire assayed with a gravimetric finish. Identified or suspected metallic gold or silver are subjected to “metallics” assays. Sampling and storage is located at the Company’s secure facility in Stewart, British Columbia.
About Ascot Resources Ltd.
Ascot is a Canadian junior exploration and development company focused on re-starting the past producing Premier gold mine, located on Nisga’a Nation Treaty Lands, in British Columbia’s prolific Golden Triangle. Concurrent with progressing the development of Premier, the Company continues to successfully explore its properties for additional high-grade underground resources. Ascot is committed to the safe and responsible development of Premier in collaboration with Nisga’a Nation as outlined in the Benefits Agreement.
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