11 November 2020
Seabridge Gold reported today that this year’s core drilling at its 100%-owned Iskut project in Northwestern British Columbia found indications of higher grade copper mineralization (0.62% copper over 31.8 meters) and many of the earmarks of a large porphyry system which may lie below the drilling completed to date. Field operations were conducted under rigorous COVID-19 protocols to minimize transmission risks, resulting in a successful although scaled back program with no infections among staff, contractors, or local communities.
The 2020 program was designed to test geophysical anomalies below the Quartz Rise Lithocap that is host to a diatreme pipe containing gold-copper mineralized vein fragments. A total of 8,961 meters of core drilling was completed in 11 holes. Results were consistent with the alteration halo from a large porphyry system. Mineralized intervals of up to 158 meters grading 0.16 g/T gold and 0.16% copper were intersected, indicating that drilling to date is in the outer portions of a gold-copper porphyry. The next step is to vector to the heart of that system which may still exist at some depth below that reached so far. Analysis of the intrusive rocks, trace element geochemistry, alteration mineralogy, structural and deformation settings is being undertaken to refine targets.