Pretium Resources reports that initial results from the 2012 drill program at its Brucejack gold project in northern British Columbia continue to confirm the projection and continuity of high-grade mineralization in the project’s Valley of the Kings zone. An initial 25,000-m, in-fill drill program is in progress. The first holes are focused on delineating the eastern end of the Valley of the Kings and testing for extension of the zone to the east. The primary objective of the 2012 drilling is to increase drill density to upgrade inferred resources to indicated in support of a feasibility study that is currently under way.
High-grade gold resources in the Valley of the Kings at a 5-g/mt gold-equivalent cut-off currently total 4.9 million oz indicated in 8.9 million mt grading 17.3 g/mt and 10.4 million oz inferred in 12.7 million mt grading 25.5 g/mt. An updated high-grade resource estimate based on the initial 2012 drill program is anticipated in the third quarter of this year.
Pretium has filed a permit application to access the Valley of the Kings underground by driving an exploration decline from the 1,330-m level of the existing West zone underground workings, and the company is planning a second phase of 2012 drilling to test extensions of the Valley of the Kings zone along strike and at depth.
