Sabina expands drill program at Back River

Sabina Gold & Silver (TSX: SBB; US-OTC: SGSVF) has returned to work at its Back River gold project in Nunavut, with an expanded 8,500-metre drill program planned at the 8-km-long Goose property.

The junior demobilized its exploration camp staff at the project, 520 km northeast of Yellowknife, in March, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, before beginning its planned drill program (at that time a smaller 6,500-metre campaign) for the year. In light of the virus, Sabina now has a new operational framework in place to safeguard the health of both personnel and local communities.

This year’s drill program will aim to test the continuity of high-grade mineralization at the Umwelt deposit, up-plunge from the deposit’s Vault zone and towards the bottom of the planned Umwelt open pit. Up to 5,000 metres of infill drilling and expansion drilling will also be conducted at the Llama deposit, below the current resource. Several new targets will also be tested.

“During the 2019 exploration drilling campaign we continued to demonstrate the potential for significant mine life extension at the Goose project and have now delineated an additional 1.2 km of mineralized strike length at Llama underground, the new discovery at Nuvuyak and the emerging high-grade corridor at Umwelt,” said president and CEO Bruce McLeod in a press release.

“This year’s campaign will also enable us to prepare for the significant drilling required to bring these targets into a resource estimate. We are happy to be back in camp and are looking forward to a fruitful field season.”

Sabina estimates 32,000 metres of drilling will be needed to delineate an initial inferred resource for the new discoveries. Bringing them to the indicated level would require 81,000 metres.

The Nuvuyak gold zone, discovered in 2018, is 850 metres west of the main Goose deposit and 1,000 metres down-plunge.

At Umwelt, the company is aiming to gain a better understanding of a modelled secondary structure that was intersected in previous drilling throughout the plunge length of the deposit. An initial 8-10 holes in this area will be drilled, with the aim of understanding the structure’s role in producing a localized thickened iron formation associated with higher than average gold mineralization, including 22 metres of 14.97 g/t gold in hole 19GSE569, drilled last year.

Sabina, which closed a $55-million financing in early June, recently received the last major permits needed for operations at Back River. It also has all major construction permits in hand.

The Umwelt, Llama and Goose deposits are all located on the Goose property and are part of a 2015 feasibility study for Back River, which outlines a $415-million open pit and underground project that would produce 200,000 oz. gold annually for 12 years.

— This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal. The Northern Miner and Canadian Mining Journal are part of Glacier Resource Innovation Group.