Jayden pulls high grade at Silver Coin (December 06, 2010)

VANCOUVER — When results from the first five holes of a drill program include such intercepts as 40.6 metres grading 3.12 grams gold per tonne and 55 metres of 8.42 grams gold, the program can be labelled a success even before it is half done, and such is the case for Jayden Resources’ (JDN-V) work at its Silver Coin property in northern British Columbia.

Jayden completed an 18-hole program at Silver Coin over the summer and to date results from five holes are out. The first hole of the program returned a whopper intercept: 55 metres grading 8.42 grams gold and 12.53 grams silver per tonne, starting 73 metres downhole and including 7 metres of 32.9 grams gold with 45.4 grams silver and a separate 6 metres carrying 11.6 grams gold and 10.4 grams silver.

That hit, from hole 311, came from the south end of the deposit, which strikes north-south for some 700 metres and stretches across 300 metres width. With the next few holes Jayden marched north through the zone. Hole 312 was collared 200 metres north of hole 311 and returned two promising intercepts: 35.2 metres grading 3.12 grams gold and 24.07 grams silver from 70 metres depth, followed by 25 metres of 1.73 grams gold and 6.02 grams silver from 146 metres downhole.

Jayden then moved the drill another 200 metres north and drilled hole 313, which also produced two intercepts: 3 metres at 23.6 grams gold and 5.85 grams silver from 78 metres depth plus 10 metres of 4.07 grams gold and 8.29 grams silver from 143 metres downhole.

The northern portion of the deposit has seen less historic drilling, so with the drill near the north end of the zone Jayden completed two more holes. Hole 315 cut a 31.6- metre intercept grading 2.19 grams gold with 13.19 grams silver from just 11 metres below surface and a 4.5-metre hit carrying 2.53 grams gold and 5.13 grams silver from 84 metres downhole. Then hole 316 hit 40.6 metres of 3.12 grams gold and 9.19 grams silver from surface, followed by 24.4 metres averaging 1.71 grams gold and 13.23 grams silver from 47 metres depth.

The Silver Coin property has seen more than 700 drill holes, of which Jayden and its joint-venture partner Mountain Boy Minerals (MTB-V) have completed roughly half. Earlier this year, Jayden completed an exhaustive review of the drilling database and developed a new geological model. In that process the company discovered geological logs and assay certificates for a significant number of holes that had been excluded from the database. Since the excluded holes predominately carried low grades, Jayden realized the new data would impact the existing resource estimate and so commissioned a new one.

The new estimate reduced the contained gold count by 500,000 oz. The Silver Coin resource now stands at 27.2 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 0.96 gram gold and 6 grams silver plus 29.7 million inferred tonnes averaging 0.69 gram gold and 6 grams silver. In addition, the report concluded that zinc could be recovered during gold-silver processing and, within the stated resource, Silver Coin also hosts 56.8 million inferred tonnes of 0.19% zinc.

Jayden plans to redo the resource estimate again, once all of the results from the 2010 program are in. The grades from the first five holes of the program are certainly higher than the resource grades and look set to boost the gold count again.

Jayden, which was known as Pinnacle Mines until mid-2010, has been exploring Silver Coin since 2005 when it acquired a 20% stake from Mountain Boy. In mid-2008, the company increased its holding to 60% by buying Creston Moly’s (CMS-V) 40% interest for 13.5 million shares; a year later Jayden increased its position to 70% by paying Mountain Boy $440,000. The company still has the option to increase its ownership stake to 80% by spending another $4 million on exploration over the next few years.

Silver Coin sits 25 km north of Stewart. The property is road accessible — the Granduc road passes through the project on its way to the deep-water port at Stewart. The historic Silbak-Premier mine, which produced roughly 2 million oz. gold, lies 5 km to the south.

The property covers an area of Lower Jurassic-age, intensely altered, intermediate volcanic rocks cut by a variety of intrusives. In the early 1990s, previous owners mined 102,000 tonnes grading 8.9 grams gold and 55 grams silver from an area on the property known as the Facecut zone, using underground drifts. The ore was sent to Silbak- Premier for processing.

Initial metallurgical testing shows the precious metals at Silver Coin respond well to flotation followed by cyanidation of the concentrates, producing recoveries of 88% for gold and 60% for silver.

During 2011 Jayden plans to complete a much larger drill program, focused on step-out drilling to expand the resource, exploration drilling to test outlying targets, and further infill drilling to inform resource modeling, metallurgical and engineering studies.

Jayden’s share price was unchanged on the latest results from Silver Coin, closing at 22¢. The company has a 52-week trading range of 8.5¢-26¢ and 183 million shares outstanding.