Seabridge Gold Continues to Grow Iron Cap
Press Release
October 03, 2017
Toronto, Canada… Seabridge Gold (TSX:SEA) (NYSE:SA) announced today more outstanding results from the next three drill holes targeting the plunge projection of the Iron Cap Deposit at KSM. Long runs of higher grades continue to support revisions to the KSM’s mine plan which could substantially improve project economics. The KSM project, located in north western British Columbia, Canada is 100%-owned by Seabridge and hosts a cluster of four large porphyry gold-copper deposits including Iron Cap. See our news release of September 6, 2017 for the first five Iron Cap holes drilled this summer.
Seabridge Chairman and CEO Rudi Fronk noted that “Iron Cap is permitted as a block cave and it’s ideally located close to, and dips towards, the proposed ore conveyance tunnel between the mine site and process facility. This fact strongly suggests that changing the mine plan to exploit Iron Cap just after the Mitchell deposit and before Kerr could offer substantial economic improvements. This change could substantially reduce development costs and increase gold production in the earlier years,” said Fronk. “The reason we decided to mine Kerr first was the smaller size of the Iron Cap resource, but the extraordinary widths we are encountering in the drilling make it clear to us that Iron Cap will probably rival Kerr in size and grade.”
Fronk noted that the September, 2016 Technical Report for KSM provided a 50+ year mining scenario that estimated project gold output averaging more than a million ounces annually for the first seven years of production. “We believe that moving up Iron Cap could significantly expand this period of exceptionally high gold production. There are very few if any environmentally approved, undeveloped projects with this potential level of gold production in the world today,” Fronk said.
Results from the ongoing 2017 exploration program at Iron Cap confirm a strong west-northwest plunge to the deposit which crops out to the east under ice and rubble below the Sulphurets Thrust Fault. The current northern limit of the deposit is defined by a newly-discovered normal fault, dubbed the North Iron Cap Fault, which appears to limit potential expansion of the deposit in that direction. Drilling has therefore focused to the west as the program has evolved.
Results from the latest three drill holes are:
Drill holes were oriented using historical information and were designed to intercept the mineralized target down plunge of the strike to the zone as closely as topographic constraints permitted. This orientation will be refined with additional drilling but current information indicates that the intervals listed above represent a reasonable approximation of true thickness of the mineralized zones. For a drill hole plan map and cross-sections please click this link.
The northern-most drill hole in this year’s program is IC-17-68, off-set 165 meters north of hole IC-17-63. This hole was drilled steeply to the east and into the hanging wall of the east-west trending North Iron Cap Fault to test the fault off-set potential of the Iron Cap plunge projection. After completing 536 meters of this hole in unmineralized upper Jurassic stratigraphy, accounting for the poor returns in the upper portions of this hole, 68 was steered south using directional tools back across the fault where it found the plunge projection of Iron Cap. Beginning at 624m depth, the sediments become strongly and pervasively phyllic altered and foliated, but unmineralized. It is believed the alteration marks the north periphery of the Iron Cap zone alteration halo. Between 695.3 and 704.5m, it encountered two splays of the North Iron Cap Fault. Below the faults mineralization picks up rapidly. The off-set along the faults has not been verified but is believed to be on the order of 100 meters, and fault movement is normal with the north side down-dropped. The Iron Cap zone remains open down the westerly plunge direction.
Hole IC-17-69 is a west off-set to hole IC-17-63, orientated west and testing the plunge projection of the Iron Cap deposit north of holes IC-16-62 and IC-17-70. Comparable to holes 62, 63 and 70, this hole entered bedrock above the Sulphurets Thrust Fault and encountered mineralization after passing through that fault.
Drill hole IC-17-70 is an off-set west of hole IC-16-62, oriented west and testing the plunge projection of the Iron Cap deposit. After passing though ice and rubble, the hole encountered hanging wall units to the Sulphurets Thrust Fault before passing through the fault into the main mineralized zone of the deposit. Drill holes in this area are showing that the mineralized thickness of the Iron Cap deposit is about 600 meters across and 900 meters down plunge.
Exploration activities by Seabridge at the KSM Project are conducted under the supervision of William E. Threlkeld, Registered Professional Geologist, Senior Vice President of the Company and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Threlkeld has reviewed and approved this news release. An ongoing and rigorous quality control/quality assurance protocol is employed in all Seabridge drilling campaigns. This program includes blank and reference standards; in addition all copper assays exceeding 0.25% Cu are re-analyzed using ore grade analytical techniques. Cross-check analyses are conducted at a second external laboratory on at least 10% of the drill samples. Samples are assayed at ISO and ASTM certified laboratories in Vancouver, B.C., using fire assay atomic adsorption methods for gold and ICP methods for other elements.
Seabridge Gold holds a 100% interest in several North American gold resource projects. The Company’s principal assets are the KSM and Iskut properties located near Stewart, British Columbia, Canada and the Courageous Lake gold project located in Canada’s Northwest Territories. For a breakdown of Seabridge’s mineral reserves and resources by project and category please visit the Company’s website at http://www.seabridgegold.net/resources.php.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
“Rudi Fronk”
Chairman and CEO
Rudi P. Fronk, Chairman and CEO
Tel: (416) 367-9292 · Fax: (416) 367-2711
Email: info@seabridgegold.net
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