Each one in plain English, with the numbers worked through for a shareholder.
16 Jan 2025drilling result▲ GoodMajor
The first drilling ever done on KSP - 22 holes, 9,182 metres - found a gold-copper porphyry at Camp Porphyry, 5 kilometres from Snip, that previous operators had noticed but never drilled. CP-24-004 returned 0.71 g/t gold, 0.69 g/t silver and 0.03% copper over 381.47 metres of core length from 50 metres depth, including 1.07 g/t gold over 139.00 metres; CP-24-001 gave 0.62 g/t gold over 121.50 metres and CP-24-008 6.44 g/t gold with 0.23% copper over 7.61 metres. Traced about 1,000 metres of strike so far. True widths cannot be estimated, and this is bulk-tonnage porphyry grade - a different and much longer-dated proposition than Eskay Creek.
The 2023 programme largely failed to repeat 2022. Thirteen near-mine holes found footwall mineralisation around the 22 Zone - SK-23-1203 at 19.87 g/t gold and 59.1 g/t silver over 2.95 metres was the best - but the company states outright that these are not expected to materially affect existing 22 Zone resources or reserves. At Eskay Deeps, eight holes and two wedges totalling 13,787 metres chasing the 2022 discovery hole SK-22-1081 hit only anomalous trace mineralisation in the target Contact Mudstone; the sole real intercept, SK-23-1182 at 3.92 g/t gold over 5.38 metres, sat 120 metres below that horizon. A seismic survey is planned for 2024 before further deep drilling.
Filed the NI 43-101 technical report behind the November 2023 updated feasibility study. Comparing the filed report's figures against the 14 November announcement, the headline C$2.0 billion net present value, 43% return, 1.2-year payback, C$713 million capital and 39.8 million tonne reserve are identical; the small movements are all-in sustaining cost US$687/oz against US$684, first five-year output 450,000 ounces a year against 455,000, and free cash flow C$467 million a year against C$474 million.
The definitive feasibility study raised after-tax net present value to C$2.0 billion (5% discount, US$1,800 gold and US$23 silver) on reserves about 20% larger - 39.8 million tonnes containing 3.3 million ounces of gold and 88.0 million ounces of silver - with first five-year output of 455,000 ounces a year at 5.5 g/t AuEq. Pre-production capital rose to C$713 million from C$592 million and the return fell to 43% from 50%, so the higher value comes from more tonnes and a higher assumed gold price rather than better economics per ounce. The same filing carries a shareholder rights plan agreement with Computershare dated the same day - a takeover defence adopted alongside the study.
First-pass work on KSP, the 64,000 hectares acquired with QuestEx, was stream-sediment sampling, mapping and rock grabs - no drilling. Selected grab samples returned 14.20 g/t gold with 1.09% copper at the Tami target, 6.52 g/t gold with 3.82% zinc at Khyber Gap and 31.34% zinc but almost no gold at Pins. Grab samples are chosen for being mineralised and say nothing about grade over any width; what they establish is that a 17-kilometre stretch of the Bronson Corridor carries porphyry, skarn and epithermal styles worth drilling.
Snip's indicated resource was restated at 823,000 ounces of gold at 9.35 g/t, a 579,000-ounce increase - 237% - on the 2020 estimate, with 114,000 inferred ounces at 7.10 g/t; recovery assumptions rose to 96% from 90%. Almost all of the gain is reclassification of historical drilling given confidence by Skeena's own 2021-22 holes rather than newly found metal, and the plan is to treat Snip as a satellite feeding the Eskay Creek mill.
An updated resource estimate lifted Eskay Creek's pit-constrained measured and indicated resource 8% to 5.59 million ounces gold-equivalent (50.1 million tonnes at 3.47 g/t AuEq, being 4.14 million ounces of gold at 2.57 g/t and 102.5 million ounces of silver at 63.63 g/t), with a further 0.35 million ounces underground for the 5.9 million ounce headline. The more important change is confidence: measured material rose 23% and is now 73% of the pit resource, up from 63%, and inferred material is down to 40,000 ounces. It absorbs 278 new holes and 67,885 metres of the 2021-22 drilling.
The last of the 2022 holes: SK-22-1132 returned 18.18 g/t gold and 130.2 g/t silver over 9.26 metres 25 metres below surface in 21A West, 75 metres up-dip of SK-22-1031, and SK-22-1177 gave 14.90 g/t gold over 5.70 metres. The 23 Zone produced a silver-dominant hit in SK-22-1187 (0.95 g/t gold with 1,003.3 g/t silver over 6.42 metres), and three holes in the 21E Zone ran 2.78 to 4.96 g/t gold over 20 to 26 metres. Closes out the programme that rebuilt the case for a bigger resource.
The 22 Zone was extended to the southwest by SK-22-1112, which returned 1.86 g/t gold and 88.3 g/t silver (2.85 g/t AuEq) over 16.56 metres, and SK-22-1113 at 2.96 g/t AuEq over 9.90 metres. Both sit just outside the 2022 feasibility study pit shell, so they would need to be brought into a revised pit to count.
Two infill holes drilled from the same pad as SK-22-1090 confirmed continuity in the 23 Zone from surface: SK-22-1092 gave 0.92 g/t gold and 12.5 g/t silver (1.05 g/t AuEq) over 79.97 metres and SK-22-1089 0.86 g/t AuEq over 29.90 metres. Confirmation drilling in a known zone, at grades in line with what was already there.
SK-22-1054 found a new body of rhyolite-hosted mineralisation 200 metres east of the 22 Zone in ground with no historical drilling at all, grading 1.79 g/t gold and 32.0 g/t silver (2.15 g/t AuEq) over 40.67 metres from 23 metres depth. It sits outside the pit-constrained resource, the grade is modest against 21A West, and the geometry is unknown - it is one hole, open in all directions.
Two more holes extended 21A West southwards inside the planned pit: SK-22-1131 returned 7.73 g/t gold and 16.8 g/t silver (7.91 g/t AuEq) over 17.20 metres starting 14 metres below surface, 35 metres from SK-22-1031, and SK-22-1103 a further 35 metres south gave 3.45 g/t AuEq over 21.80 metres and 5.46 g/t AuEq over 9.75 metres. All of it in material the 2022 study treated as waste.
SK-22-1122 returned 20.43 g/t gold and 175.2 g/t silver (22.38 g/t AuEq) over 24.00 metres, including half a metre at 80.20 g/t gold and 2,790 g/t silver, 15 metres below the 48 g/t hole SK-22-1093 and only 60 metres below surface inside the planned pit. A second hole, SK-22-1095, found new mineralisation below the pit at 5.51 g/t AuEq over 20.60 metres. Like the rest of 21A West, this ground was carried as barren waste in the current reserve.
The first deep hole ever drilled into the down-dip extension of the deposit found new rhyolite-hosted mineralisation 650 metres below the NEX Zone at 850 metres depth: SK-22-1081 returned 3.79 g/t gold and 59.4 g/t silver (4.46 g/t AuEq) over 32.19 metres, with narrow sub-intervals above 10 g/t AuEq. A single hole into a new area, opening the "Eskay Deeps" as an underground target rather than adding anything to the open pit.
Infill hole SK-22-1090 extended 23 Zone mineralisation right to surface with 1.13 g/t gold and 6.6 g/t silver (1.20 g/t AuEq) over 96.02 metres, which would cut the waste-to-ore ratio of a future pit; SK-22-1071 gave 1.17 g/t AuEq over 109.82 metres and SK-22-1069 2.30 g/t AuEq over 26.50 metres. These are infill holes in a known zone, not new discoveries. From this release the gold-equivalent formula divides silver by 90 rather than 75, so quoted AuEq figures are slightly lower than earlier releases for the same assays.
SK-22-1031 hit 2.21 g/t gold and 4.6 g/t silver (2.27 g/t AuEq) over 50.00 metres in the 21A West Zone, 75 metres along strike from the 48 g/t hole - ground the 2022 resource estimate and feasibility study had both modelled as barren waste rock because no one had ever drilled it. A separate hole, SK-22-1040, returned 0.79 g/t AuEq over 95.75 metres 500 metres south of the 23 Zone.
An amended and restated version of the feasibility study technical report, replacing the report filed on 14 September. The notice to reader says it reflects housekeeping and clarifying amendments plus conforming changes to the qualified persons' certificates; the study results are unchanged.
Skeena filed the full NI 43-101 technical report behind the 8 September feasibility study. It contains no new information - the results were already announced.
The Eskay Creek feasibility study put after-tax net present value at C$1.41 billion (5% discount, US$1,700 gold and US$19 silver) with a 50.2% return and one-year payback on C$592 million of pre-production capital, from proven and probable open-pit reserves of 29.9 million tonnes containing 2.87 million ounces of gold and 75.5 million ounces of silver. It reports the pit at 3.87 g/t gold-equivalent diluted; the July 2021 prefeasibility study, on figures the company quotes in its own releases, showed a 4.57 g/t open-pit grade with the same C$1.4 billion value and a 56% return over a 1.4-year payback.
The first 2022 results delivered SK-22-1093 in the 21A West Zone: 47.50 g/t gold and 73.4 g/t silver (48.48 g/t AuEq) over 12.12 metres, more than five times the grade of the 2021 discovery hole SK-21-997 in the same zone, inside the intended open pit and 75 metres north of it. Broader, lower-grade intercepts came from the East Flank (3.01 g/t AuEq over 17.66 metres, 1.68 over 31.30 metres) and the 23 Zone (1.33 g/t AuEq over 47.50 metres).
The final 2021 holes produced the discovery that mattered: SK-21-997 hit 8.78 g/t gold and 13 g/t silver (8.95 g/t AuEq) over 34.00 metres only 30 metres below surface and 60 metres west of the 21A pit-constrained resource - inside the pit outline of the 2021 prefeasibility study, so it is ore that costs nothing extra to reach. Lesser intercepts came from SK-21-983 (4.44 g/t AuEq over 11.73 metres) and SK-21-985 (2.39 g/t AuEq over 11.50 metres). This became the 21A West Zone.
A step-out hole, SK-21-971, extended the week-old 23 Zone 90 metres up-dip with 1.97 g/t gold and 3 g/t silver (2.00 g/t AuEq) over 40.50 metres; SK-21-963 gave 0.76 g/t AuEq over 52.00 metres and SK-21-973 3.05 g/t AuEq over 7.49 metres. Expansion of a known zone rather than a new find, and the zone remains open in all directions.
A genuinely new zone, the 23 Zone, was found 200 metres east of the high-grade 21A Zone and outside the current pit-constrained resource, starting only 15 metres below surface: SK-21-947 returned 2.14 g/t gold and 14.6 g/t silver (2.33 g/t AuEq) over 59.91 metres, SK-21-945 1.08 g/t AuEq over 90.00 metres and SK-21-946 1.72 g/t AuEq over 43.39 metres. Previous operators had drilled the ground in 1990 but sampled only selected intervals, which is why they missed it - a 1990 hole metres away reported just 1.97 g/t over 2.00 metres.
Twelve shallow air-rotary holes (212 metres in total) drilled from a barge on the Albino Waste Facility - the historic waste and tailings pond, not in-situ ore - returned 5.90 g/t gold and 317 g/t silver (10.13 g/t gold-equivalent) over 16.77 metres in SK-21-899 and 8.80 g/t AuEq over 13.72 metres in SK-21-903. Combined with the Phase I holes drilled earlier in 2021, twenty holes now average 13.20 metres thickness at 4.03 g/t gold and 163 g/t silver, over an area 350 by 125 metres; the rest of the facility is untested.
