Alexco Resource reports initial results from the 2019 Bermingham “deep target” drilling program at the Keno Hill Silver District property in Canada’s Yukon Territory. The 2019 drill program was designed to follow up prior drill results indicating potential for deeper mineralization at Bermingham, with a specific aim to test for the presence of mineralization in a deeper stratigraphic zone, which also hosts the adjacent historic Hector Calumet deposit. Success in the 2019 Bermingham deep drilling program will now drive a much larger follow up drilling program, the timing and drill-technology for which is under review.
Shallower drilling has also been completed adjacent to the Bermingham Northeast Resource Zone with the aim of expanding the mineral resource adjacent to anticipated mining areas.
Alexco’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Clynt Nauman commented: “The confirmation of high-grade silver mineralization at relatively deep levels below our existing Bermingham deposit is first and foremost an outstanding technical (and hopefully economic) success. This discovery confirms our view that the Bermingham deposit, which currently contains more than 40 million ounces of silver in all categories may be much larger, and certainly well within the upper quartile of historic or contemporary discoveries/deposits in the Keno Hill Silver District. Clearly a large follow up drilling program is now required; whether we execute this from underground or from the surface is still under review. Either way, these results are unlikely to alter our mine plan in the short term. In comparison however, and as reported here, the presence of high grade silver mineralization adjacent but beyond the current NE Zone resource may well expand our mining opportunity in this particular area. Again, further work is required”.
The 2019 exploration drilling has confirmed the presence of an extensive potentially deeply rooted mineralizing system at Bermingham, characterized by wide structural zones containing silver and base metal bearing veins up to and over 200 m depth below the outlined resource areas where deposition may have been related to possible higher-level boiling activity.
