In total, 4,495 metres of exploration drilling have been completed at Snowstorm since the most recent program began in mid-September 2020.
“When we acquired Snowstorm, we knew it would require a multi-year exploration program. The first drill program in 2019 met its objective as we were able to confirm the structural setting and rocks similar to those that host the Turquoise Ridge deposit. The aim of the second recently completed program was to find gold and pathfinder elements such as arsenic within the type of structures identified as gold-bearing at Turquoise Ridge. This objective was also accomplished,” Seabridge chairman and CEO Rudi Fronk noted a a press release.
According to Fronk, the latest drill campaign “has been an exercise in patience” in part because the target strata lie under a thick package of young volcanic rocks.
The 2020 program was designed to test magnetotelluric (MT) structures in an unexplored area east of previous exploration drilling. The drilling was planned to deliver definitive data on whether the MT structures represented pathways for gold-bearing fluids.
Two holes tested a shallow dipping geophysical target near multiple converging northeast and northwest trending fault zones. A third angled hole was designed to cross a northeast structure and test the same shallow dipping geophysical target. The fourth hole tested a large low resistivity anomaly, hanging wall to the shallow dipping geophysical response and into the core of an interpreted fold.
Seabridge is now evaluating how to use these promising results to find possible concentrations of gold similar to other Getchell occurrences. A new drill program is scheduled to begin in July 2021.
Following Tuesday’s announcement, Seabridge’s stock rose 4.0% by noon EST on the TSX, giving the Canadian gold miner a market capitalization of C$1.6 billion.
