Vancouver, B.C. December 10, 2019 — Ascot Resources Ltd (TSX: AOT; OTCQX: AOTVF) (“Ascot” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce the results from forty-two (42) drill holes completed at the Big Missouri deposit of Ascot’s Premier Gold Project (“Premier”) near Stewart in northwestern British Columbia. These results should be considered in conjunction with previous news releases on Big Missouri dated June 27, July 17, July 25, August 8 and August 27.
- Highlights of this release include:
- 22.54g/t Au over 5.50m in hole P19-1999
- 24.90g/t Au over 2.06m in hole P19-2020
- 149.00g/t Au over 1.00m in hole P19-2070
Derek White, President and CEO of Ascot commented, “In 2019, the Company drilled just over 24,000 metres in 147 holes at Big Missouri with a total of 321 reported gold intercepts. In the past, Big Missouri was drilled to demonstrate wide zones of lower grade gold for open pit mining. Over the past two years the Company has focussed drilling on higher grade underground targets, especially around the S1 pit and Unicorn areas. We will incorporate this new drill data into an updated resource estimate.
Big Missouri is a large area with enormous potential. We are confident that the drilling will convert a substantial amount of our inferred resources to the indicated category for our mine planning and the upcoming feasibility study.”
The Big Missouri deposit is located approximately five kilometres to the north of the Premier mill along the Big Missouri haul road. Westmin Resources previously mined gold from the S1 pit at Big Missouri and in the first half of the 20th century the deposit had limited production from underground. Mineralization at Big Missouri covers a large area and gold zones are present at three different stratigraphic levels in sub-horizontal zones with a gentle westerly dip. The drill program at Big Missouri was designed to convert a portion of the inferred resources to the indicated category. This news release completes the reporting of infill drilling from Big Missouri.
Drill Results
This news release presents the results from 42 drill holes, comprising 6,297 metres of drilling, completed from nine separate pads into the Big Missouri deposit. This set of holes was completed to test an area to the south of the S1 pit and the Unicorn area to the north (see figure 1). It is interesting that hole P19-2142 and P19-2145 intercepted gold mineralization as these holes were drilled for geotechnical purposes at a proposed portal site in the southern high wall of the S1 pit. This is the second proposed portal site where gold mineralization was intercepted during geotechnical investigations. The proximity of gold mineralization to a proposed access point is a very positive development in the course of our work towards restarting gold production at the Premier mill.
The drill results are favourable with gold intercepts at expected depth and confirming previously established orientations of mineralized zones. Figure 2 shows a cross section of drill holes P19-2109 and P19-2110 that were designed to follow up a previous high-grade intercept in hole P14-608 (83.5g/t Au over 1.52 metres). The drill holes intercepted gold mineralization at similar depth and are now aiding to establish one of the modeled zones, in this case solid 79 (see Figure 2). As a result of the two new drill holes, some of the ore blocks in the vicinity of the three holes will potentially qualify to be classified in the indicated category in an area where blocks were classified as inferred previously.
For details, see original news release dated 10-Dec-2019
