Sabina Gold & Silver Corp announces the first results from the summer exploration diamond drilling program at its 100% owned Back River Gold Project in Nunavut, Canada. Approximately 10,000 m of planned drilling with three drill rigs is progressing well with the objective of testing high impact targets in and around existing resources at the Goose Property.
Drill hole 17GSE516B intersected 9.48 g/t Au over 38.55 m within a strongly altered and mineralized lower iron formation package that is part of the continuation of the highly prospective, mineralized, Llama structure. This intercept is approximately 160 m down plunge from previously reported drill hole 17GS513 (see news release June 13, 2017) which intersected over 40 meters of altered and mineralized lower iron formation that included 6.52 g/t Au over 8.3 meters from 618.9 m to 627.2 m. This new zone represents a significant increase in sulphide mineralization along the structure, is open in all directions and demonstrates that the Llama gold structure is robust for a continued distance along strike of over 1,500 m from surface to a vertical depth of 595 m. Drilling will continue to test this new zone, in both the up and down plunge directions.
In addition to the drilling at Llama, drill holes have been completed at the Umwelt Vault zone, Kogoyok and Echo where results will be released as assays are received.
Bruce McLeod, President and CEO stated “The results from this hole are outstanding and represent some of the best intercepts completed by the company since the discoveries of the Llama and Umwelt deposits in 2010. Our team has continued to vector in on concept targets that can add grade and tonnes by evaluating a set of geological controls that occur at several high grade areas on the Back River claim blocks. These exploration concepts have been proven at this new Llama Zone and the Umwelt Vault zone with grades that are significantly higher than the Back River average resource grade. These new zones not only present opportunity for extended mine life, but could also positively impact project economics. I believe that further results will continue to demonstrate the tremendous blue-sky potential at Back River and the ability of our exploration team to prove their target concepts.”
At Llama Extension, the newly discovered high-grade zone is hosted within a tightly folded sequence of the Back River lower iron formation stratigraphy. This unit is identified as hosting the majority of the current resources at the Back River Project and is widely distributed across the Goose Property. Mineralization consists of significant arsenopyrite, pyrrhotite and abundant visible gold over a broad intercept that is associated with significant quartz veining and strong amphibole and chlorite alteration. Initial samples from the drill hole have been prioritized to focus on the strongest mineralization within the zone with additional assays pending for further samples adjacent to the interval and throughout the drill hole.
Drill hole 17GSE516B represents the deepest hole, vertically and down plunge, to date in the Llama gold structure approximately 460m down plunge beyond the current resource limit. This intercept projects the structure parallel to the area vertically below the Umwelt deposit (43-101 compliant resource: 9,050,000 tonnes of 6.99 g/t Au for 2,034,275 oz of Measured and Indicated resources, 1,909,000 tonnes of 11.01 g/t Au for 676,000 oz of Inferred resources) and remains as an exceptional exploration environment.
Sabina believes that the robust continuity of gold deposits hosted within the Llama to Umwelt trend, coupled with the potential for new discoveries in a parallel setting could establish an increasing gold endowment for each kilometer of strike where iron formation stratigraphy volumes increase in a down plunge setting.