American Creek Resources (TSXV: AMK) and Tudor Gold (TSXV: TUD) say step-out drilling at their Treaty Creek joint project in northwestern British Columbia's Golden Triangle shows higher grades than in last year's initial resource estimate.
Drill hole GS-22-159 cut 180 metres grading 1.71 grams gold equivalent per tonne with 0.92 gram gold, 6.1 grams silver and 0.61% copper, the compact reported in a news release on Thursday.
Although ground conditions prevented completing the hole, it was centred on a larger composite of 489 metres averaging 1.12 grams gold equivalent with 0.66 gram gold, 3.60 grams silver and 0.36% copper, American Creek and Tudor said.
"Given that the gold grades keep getting better and better and the amount of silver and copper keeps increasing as the drilling advances, there is obviously tremendous blue sky yet to come," Darren Blaney, American Creek president and chief executive officer, said in the release. "Incredibly, the Goldstorm deposit is still open in every direction and at depth!"
Treaty Creek, about 250 km northeast of Prince Rupert, B.C. and bordering on Seabridge Gold's (TSX: SEA; NYSE: SA) KSM property to the southwest and Newcrest Mining's (TSX: NCM) Brucejack gold mine to the southeast, is considered one of the industry's largest gold discoveries in the last 30 years.
Tudor owns 60% of the project and acts as operator, while American Creek and Teuton Resources (TSXV: TUO) each hold 20%. The companies said they plan to update a resource estimate for the Goldstorm deposit next year after having "significantly" expanded its resource limits. It's part of an aggressive resource expansion and delineation plan that also includes the Eureka and Calm Before the Storm zones about 1.5 km east and 2 km northeast, respectively, of Goldstorm, they said.
An initial resource estimate for the project released in March last year showed measured and indicated resources of 815.7 million tonnes grading 0.66 gram gold per tonne and 3.6 grams silver, for 17.3 million oz. of contained gold and 93.4 million oz. contained silver.
Thursday's results included five diamond drill holes on the Goldstorm deposit, with four of them drilled partially or completely outside the 2021 mineral resource estimate area, the companies said. The drilling expanded the deposit to the north and confirmed the near-surface, southeasterly expansion of the Route 66 zone that yielded 0.95 gram per tonne gold equivalent over 42 metres, they said.
The drilling found higher gold, silver and copper grades throughout the northern step-out expansion of the Goldstorm deposit than the grades derived from the 2021 initial resource estimate. Also, silver grades improved in the northern extension of the CS600 domain, the companies said.
Drill hole GS-22-162 cut 145.5 metres grading 1.34 grams gold equivalent per tonne with 0.61 gram gold, 12.01 grams silver and 0.5 % copper, the results show. "We are very much looking forward to seeing an updated resource," Blaney said.
According to the Treaty Creek project arrangement, Tudor pays for all development costs until a production notice is issued, after which American Creek and Teuton are each to pay 20% of development costs.
American Creek also owns the Austruck-Bonanza gold-silver-copper property in the Quesnel Trough area near Kamloops in southern B.C.
Shares in Tudor gained 1.9% on Thursday morning in Toronto to $1.07, within a 52-week range of 85 ? to $2.32, valuing the company at $212.2 million. Teuton's stock, which has traded between 92 ? and $2.35 over the past year, fell 1.6% to $1.26, valuing the company at $72.6 million. Shares in American Creek were unchanged at 14 ? for a valuation of $51.7 million. They've traded as high as 22 ? and as low as 10 ? over the last year.