Banyan lifts Hyland gold resource in Yukon

[Ben Graham]

A resource update for Banyan Gold’s (TSXV: BYN) Hyland project in southeast Yukon helps the company maintain its third place ranking among the largest projects in the territory by contained gold.

The update outlines 11.3 million indicated tonnes grading 0.93 gram gold per tonne and 7.27 grams silver for 337,000 contained gold ounces and 2.63 million oz. silver, according to a release on Monday. There are also 3.9 million inferred tonnes at 0.95 gram gold and 6.94 grams silver for 118,000 oz. gold and 860,000 oz. silver. Hyland is about 450 km southeast of Whitehorse.

“The updated, pit-constrained mineral resource demonstrates the potential of the Hyland project as a gold and silver project,” Banyan President and CEO Tara Christie said in a release. “With additional work, there is potential to delineate additional mineral resources in the main zone, as well as define new resources in other portions of the property.”

Third in Yukon

Although Hyland has a smaller resource than Banyan’s main AurMac project, the update adds 5% to the company’s total contained gold of 8.1 million ounces. That puts Banyan’s total contained resource in third place among Yukon projects behind Western Copper and Gold’s (TSX, NYSE: WRN) Casino and Snowline Gold’s (TSXV: SGD) Valley.

Hyland’s resource sits in a single near-surface deposit made up of the Main, Camp, Cuz and Montrose Ridge zones that form a gold mineralized trend over 11 km.

Its gold mineralization is hosted inside a Precambrian, interbedded phyllite and quartzite sequence of the Selwyn Basin that hosts many other gold occurrences in Yukon, Banyan said.

18,505 metres drilled

The resource update was based on data from 18,505 metres of drilling across 86 holes and 7,598 metres across 39 trenches.

Hyland is accessible by float plane or via winter road about 74 km northeast of the town of Watson Lake.

Banyan shares fell 5.4% to C$0.70 apiece on Monday morning in Toronto, valuing the company at C$289.3 million.