Banyan Announces 6.2 Million Ounce Gold Resource Estimate for the AurMac Property, Yukon, Canada
1
Banyan Announces 6.2 Million Ounce Gold Resource Estimate for the AurMac
Property, Yukon, Canada
May 24, 2023 TSX-V: BYN
VANCOUVER, BC, May 24, 2023 - Banyan Gold Corp. (the "Company" or "Banyan") (TSX-V:
BYN) (OTCQB: BYAGF) is pleased to announce an updated Mineral Resource Estimate (the
“MRE” or the “Mineral Resource”) prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101,
Standards for Disclosure for Mineral Projects (“NI 43 -101”) for the Aurex and McQuesten
properties (together, the “AurMac Property”) 1 located in the Mayo Mining District, approximately
56 kilometres (“km”) northeast from the village of Mayo, Yukon, and 356 km north of Whitehorse,
Yukon.
The updated MRE comprises a total Inferred Mineral Resource ( as defined in the Canadian
Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (“CIM”) Definition Standards for Mineral Resources
& Mineral Reserves incorporated by reference into NI 43-101) of 6.2 million ounces of gold on
the near-surface, road accessible AurMac Property.
The pit constrained Mineral Resource Estimate is contained in three near/on-surface deposits:
The Airstrip, Powerline and Aurex Hill. The MRE is summarized below.
“This Mineral Resource update is an increase of over 2 million ounces or over 50% from the 2022
MRE,” stated Tara Christie, President and CEO, “This was accomplished with 50,000 metres of
drilling completed in a single season. With all three deposits remaining open, Banyan continues
to focus on growth and has already drilled 15,000 metres subsequent to this Mineral Resource
Update in our ongoing 2023 exploration program.”
Table 1: Pit-Constrained Inferred Mineral Resources – AurMac Property
Deposit Gold Cut-Off
(g/t)
Tonnage
(Mt)
Average Gold
Grade (g/t)
Contained Gold
(koz)
Airstrip 0.25 41.2 0.68 897
Powerline 0.25 197.4 0.61 3,840
Aurex Hill 0.30 74.3 0.60 1,444
Total Combined 0.25 to 0.3 312.9 0.61 6,181
Notes:
1. The effective date for the Mineral Resource is May 18, 2023.
2. Mineral Resources which are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate
of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, ti tle, taxation,
sociopolitical, marketing, changes in global gold markets or other relevant issues.
3. The CIM Definition Standards were followed for classification of Mineral Resources. The quantity and grade
of reported Inferred Mineral Resources in this estimation are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient
1 Formerly referred to as the Aurex-McQuesten property in previous Company disclosure.
2
exploration to define these Inferred Mineral Resources as an Indicated Mineral Resource and it is uncertain if
further exploration will result in upgrading them to an Indicated or Measured Mineral Resource category.
4. Mineral Resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.25 g/t Au for the Airstrip and Powerline and 0.3 g/t Au
for the Aurex Hill deposits, using a US$/CAN$ exchange rate of 0.75 and constrained within an open pit shell
optimized with the Lerchs-Grossman algorithm to constrain the Mineral Resources with the following estimated
parameters: gold price of US $1,800/ounce, US$2.50/t mining cost, US$5.50/t processing cost, UD$2.00/t
G+A, 80% heap leach recoveries, and 45° pit slope.2
5. The number of tonnes was rounded to the nearest hundred thousand. The number of ounces was rounded to
the nearest thousand. Any discrepancies in the totals are due to rounding effects; rounding followed the
recommendations as per NI 43-101.
A NI 43-101 Technical Report supporting the Mineral Resource Estimate will be filed on SEDAR
at www.sedar.com within 45 days of this release. The pit outline on-surface of the MRE is shown
in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1: Plan map showing the Resource Estimate extents, drill collar locations and extent of
interpreted mineralization.
Additional figures and information can be found at https://banyangold.com/projects/aurmac/.
2 The gold price and cost assumptions are consistent with current pricing assumptions and costs and, in particular, are
consistent with those employed for recent technical reports for similar pit-constrained Yukon gold projects.
3
About the AurMac Property
The AurMac Property is held by the Company under earn-in/option agreements (the “Option
Agreements”) with StrataGold Corporation, a 100% owned subsidiary of Victoria Gold Corp. (TSE:
VGCX) (“Victoria Gold”). The Company has the right to earn up to a 100% interest in the AurMac
Property, subject to royalties, pursuant to the terms and conditions of the Option Agreements.3
The Airstrip, Powerline and Aurex Hill deposits contained within the AurMac Property are all on
and near-surface deposits and potentially open pit mineable, with low expected strip ratios. The
AurMac Property is located just 40 km from Victoria Gold’s open pit, heap leach mine and 10 km
from Alexco’s mill facility at the High-Grade silver deposits of the Keno Hills District. The AurMac
Property lies on existing transportation infrastructure (Main Yukon Government Highway System)
and the all -season road to Victoria Gold’s Eagle Mine. The Aurex Hill, Airstrip and Powerline
deposits are within 1 km of each other and within 50 metres (“m”) of year-round access roads,
have 3-phase powerlines and benefit from cellular communications.
Airstrip Deposit
The Airstrip deposit is delineated by 139 drill holes, representing an increase of eight (8) drill holes
from the May 17, 2022 MRE. Topographic control was derived from a detailed LIDAR survey
dataset.
There are several geologic controls on gold mineralization as per the current geologic
understanding of the Airstrip deposit. The Airstrip lithological model is comprised of eight (8) east-
west oriented units, with six (6) of the units dipping at approximately 40° to the south. The bulk of
the gold identified within the MRE are hosted within a calcareous package; a roughly 90-metre-
thick east-west striking zone dipping approximately 40° to the south.
The most common sampling length of the Airstrip deposit is 1.5 m accounting for approximately
45% of the sample data; all composites were constructed at this interval . Capping of high-grade
outliers was based on lithological domains and varied from 3.0 g/t Au to 9.0 g/t Au.
The estimation of gold grades into a block model was carried out with the Ordinary Kriging (“OK”)
technique on capped composites and the resultant block model comprised of a block size of 10 m
(easting) x 10 m (northing) x 5 m (elevation) and sub-block size of 1 m (easting) x 1 m (northing)
x 1 m (elevation). Density was calculated from a total of 418 measurements from the drill core.
The average density per lithology type was assigned to the corresponding blocks.
At a 0.25 g/t Au cut-off, the pit-constrained, Inferred Mineral Resources are 41.2 million tonnes at
an average gold grade of 0.68 g/t for a total of 897,000 ounces of gold. Cut-off grade sensitivities
for the Airstrip deposit are presented in Table 2.
3 Refer to Press Releases of the Company dated May 3, 2022, December 9, 2020, December 13, 2019, July 9, 2019,
and May 25, 2017 for further details regarding the Aurex Option Agreement and McQuesten Option Agreement.
4
Table 2: Pit-Constrained Inferred Mineral Resources – Airstrip Deposit
Gold Cut-Off
(g/t)
Tonnage
(t)
Average Gold Grade
(g/t)
Contained Gold
(oz)
0.10 65,037,243 0.490 1,024,588
0.15 54,825,160 0.558 983,570
0.20 47,624,079 0.616 943,188
0.25 41,155,729 0.678 897,121
0.30 35,242,684 0.746 845,276
0.35 29,839,553 0.822 788,597
0.40 25,644,811 0.895 737,927
0.45 22,123,269 0.970 689,941
0.50 19,053,218 1.050 643,204
Notes:
1. The effective date for the Mineral Resource is May 18, 2023.
2. Mineral Resources which are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate
of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation,
sociopolitical, marketing, changes in global gold markets or other relevant issues.
3. The CIM Definition Standards were followed for the classification of Inferred Mineral Resources. The quantity
and grade of reported Inferred Mineral Resources in this estimation are uncertain in nature and there has been
insufficient exploration to define these Inferred Mineral Resources as an Indicated Mineral Resource and it is
uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading them to an Indicated or Meas ured Mineral Resource
category.
4. Mineral Resources are reported at a cut -off grade of 0.25 g/t Au, using a US$/CAN$ exchange rate of 0.75
and constrained within an open pit shell optimized with the Lerchs -Grossman algorithm to constrain the
Mineral Resources with the following estimated parameters: gold price of US$1,800/ounce, US$2.50/t mining
cost, US$5.50/t processing cost, UD$2.00/t G+A, 80% heap leach recoveries, and 45° pit slope.
Powerline Deposit
The drill data for the Powerline deposit is comprised of 504 drill holes, representing an increase
of 338 drill holes from the May 17, 2022 MRE.
There are several geologic controls on gold mineralization as per the current geologic
understanding of the Powerline deposit. The mineralization model is comprised of six (6) parallel
and undulating mineralized zones. These zones trend east-west with a plunge of 5° to the west
and dip of 10° to the north. The bulk of the gold resources within the MRE are hosted within quartz
veins that dip up to 13° toward 329°.
The most common sampling length of the Powerline deposit is 1.5 m, accounting for more than
50% of the sample data and is the composite length. Capping of high-grade outliers was carried
out for each mineralized zone and ranged from 7.0 g/t Au to 15.0 g/t Au.
The estimation of gold grades into a block model was carried out with the OK technique on capped
composites with the resultant block model comprised of a parent block size of 10 m (easting) x
10 m (northing) x 5 m (elevation) and a sub-block size of 1 m (easting) x 1 m (northing) x 1 m
(elevation).
5
At a 0.25 g/t Au cut-off, the pit-constrained, Inferred Mineral Resources are 197.4 million tonnes
at an average gold grade of 0.61 g/t for a total of 3,840,000 ounces of gold. Cut-off grade
sensitivities for the Powerline deposit are presented in Table 3.
Table 3. Pit-Constrained Inferred Mineral Resources – Powerline Deposit
Gold Cut-Off
(g/t)
Tonnage
(t)
Average Gold Grade
(g/t)
Contained Gold
(oz)
0.10 331,368,156 0.430 4,581,105
0.15 285,436,781 0.479 4,395,785
0.20 236,090,333 0.543 4,121,630
0.25 197,415,463 0.605 3,839,967
0.30 164,380,919 0.672 3,551,499
0.35 136,186,839 0.744 3,257,610
0.40 116,308,029 0.807 3,017,687
0.45 98,254,150 0.877 2,770,394
0.50 84,494,249 0.943 2,561,709
Notes:
1. The effective date for the Mineral Resource is May 18, 2023.
2. Mineral Resources which are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate
of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation,
sociopolitical, marketing, changes in global gold markets or other relevant issues.
3. The CIM Definition Standards were followed for the classification of Inferred Mineral Resources. The quantity
and grade of reported Inferred Mineral Resources in this estimation are uncertain in nature and there has been
insufficient exploration to define these Inferred Mineral Resources as an Indicated Mineral Resource and it is
uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading them to an Indicated or Measured Mineral Resource
category.
4. Mineral Resources are reported at a cut -off grade of 0.25 g/t Au, using a US$/CAN$ exchange rate of 0.75
and constrained within an open pit shell optimized with the Lerchs -Grossman algorithm to constrain the
Mineral Resources with the following estimated parameters: gold price of US$1,800/ounce, US$2.50/t mining
cost, US$5.50/t processing cost, UD$2.00/t G+A, 80% heap leach recoveries, and 45° pit slope
Aurex Hill Deposit
The drill data for the Aurex Hill deposit is comprised of 345 drill holes, representing an increase
of 104 drill holes from the May 17, 2022 MRE.
There are several geologic controls on gold mineralization as per the current geologic
understanding of the Aurex Hill deposit. The mineralization model is comprised of eight (8) parallel
and undulating mineralized zones that trend east-west and have with a plunge of 5° to the west
and dip of 20° to the north. The bulk of the gold resources within the MRE are hosted within quartz
veins that dip up to 17° toward 335°.
The most common sampling length of the Aurex Hill deposit is 1.5 m, accounting for more than
50% of the sample data and is the composite length. Capping of high-grade outliers was carried
out for each mineralized zone and ranged from 4.0 g/t Au to 15.0 g/t Au.
The estimation of gold grades into a block model was carried out with the OK technique on capped
composites with the resultant block model comprised of a parent block size of 10 m (easting) x
6
10 m (northing) x 5 m (elevation) and a sub-block size of 1 m (easting) x 1 m (northing) x 1 m
(elevation).
At a 0.30 g/t Au cut-off, the pit-constrained, Inferred Mineral Resources are 74.3 million tonnes at
an average gold grade of 0.60 g/t for a total of 1,444,000 ounces of gold. Cut-off grade sensitivities
for the Aurex Hill deposit are presented in Table 4.
Table 4. Pit-Constrained Inferred Mineral Resources – Aurex Hill Deposit
Gold Cut-Off
(g/t)
Tonnage
(t)
Average Gold Grade
(g/t)
Contained Gold
(oz)
0.10 191,204,918 0.350 2,151,583
0.15 154,052,643 0.404 2,000,974
0.20 121,717,739 0.465 1,819,692
0.25 95,960,004 0.530 1,635,148
0.30 74,343,560 0.604 1,443,681
0.35 57,456,040 0.687 1,269,064
0.40 47,177,955 0.755 1,145,189
0.45 38,819,770 0.826 1,030,918
0.50 31,077,155 0.913 912,227
Notes:
1. The effective date for the Mineral Resource is May 18, 2023.
2. Mineral Resources which are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate
of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation,
sociopolitical, marketing, changes in global gold markets or other relevant issues.
3. The CIM Definition Standards were followed for the classification of Inferred Mineral Resources. The quantity
and grade of reported Inferred Mineral Resources in this estimation are uncertain in nature and there has been
insufficient exploration to define these Inferred Mineral Resources as an Indicated Mineral Resource and it is
uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading them to an Indicated or Measured Mineral Resource
category.
4. Mineral Resources are reported at a cut -off grade of 0.30 g/t Au, using a US$/CAN$ exchange rate of 0.75
and cons trained within an open pit shell optimized with the Lerchs -Grossman algorithm to constrain the
Mineral Resources with the following estimated parameters: gold price of US$1,800/ounce, US$2.50/t mining
cost, US$5.50/t processing cost, UD$2.00/t G+A, 80% heap leach recoveries, and 45° pit slope.
Quality Assurance, Quality Control Measures and Data Verification
The reported work was completed using industry standard procedures, including a quality
assurance/quality control (“QA/QC”) program consisting of the insertion of certified standards and
blanks into the sample stream and utilizing certified independent analytical laboratories for all
assays. Additionally, historic QA/QC data and methodology on the AurMac Property were
reviewed and will be summarized in the NI 43 -101 Technical Report . The qualified persons
detected no significant QA/QC issues during review of the data.
A robust system of standards, ¼ core duplicates and analytical blanks, was implemented in all
Banyan drilling programs and was monitored as chemical assay data became available. All
control samples were within accuracy and precision thresholds required to meet data quality
standards. These control samples amounted to approximately 10% of all samples submitted to
analytical laboratories.
7
All geological data in the resource estimate was verified by Ginto Consulting Inc. (“Ginto”) as
being accurate to the ex tent possible and to the extent possible all geological information was
reviewed and confirmed. Ginto made site visits to the AurMac property on September 15, 2018,
November 27, 2019, August 30 and 31, 2021, and November 5, 2022, and observed Banyan’s
drilling and sampling techniques, and viewed AurMac drill core. Ginto confirms that the assay
sampling and QA/QC sampling of core by Banyan provides adequate and good verification of the
data and believes the work to have been done within the guidelines of NI 43-101. Additional
discussion on the AurMac Mineral Resource Model Data Verification will be included in the
forthcoming NI 43-101 Technical Report to be filed on SEDAR within 45 days.
Qualified Persons
The updated Mineral Resource for the AurMac Proper ty was prepared by Marc Jutras, P.Eng.,
M.A.Sc., Principal, Ginto Consulting Inc., a “Qualified Person” independent of the Company, as
defined under National Instruction 43-101, Standard of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (“NI 43-
101”) who has reviewed and approved the contents of this release and has verified the data
disclosed as it relates to the MRE . The data was verified using data validation and quality
assurance procedures under industry standards.
Paul D. Gray, P.Geo., is a “Qualified Person” as defined under NI 43-101, and has reviewed and
approved the content of this news release. Mr. Gray has verified the data disclosed in this press
release in respect of disclosure other than the MRE, including the sampling, analytical and test
data underlying the information.
Analytical Method
Drill core from 199 drill holes from the 2022 drill program were analyzed at Bureau Veritas
Minerals of Vancouver, BC utilizing the aqua regia digestion ICP-MS 36-element AQ200 analytical
package with FA450 50-gram Fire Assay with AAS finish for gold on all samples. Drill core from
13 drill holes from the 2022 were analyzed at MSA Canada in Langley, BC utilizing the aqua regia
digestion ISP-MS 39-element IMS-116 analytical package with FAS-121 50-gram Fire Assay with
AAS finish for gold on all samples.
All core samples were split on-site at Banyan’s core processing facilities. Once split, half samples
were placed back in the core boxes with the other half of split samples sealed in poly bags with
one part of a three-part sample tag inserted within. Samples were delivered by Banyan personnel
or a dedicated expediter to a Whitehorse preparatory laboratory where samples are prepared and
then shipped to an analytical laboratory in Vancouv er, BC for pulverization and final chemical
analysis. A more robust description of historic analytical procedures will be included in the
forthcoming AurMac NI 43-101 report to be filed on SEDAR in due course.
Risk Factors
Banyan is unaware of any legal, political, environmental or other risks that could materially affect
the potential development of the Mineral Resource estimates described in this news release.
2023 Exploration Update
Banyan initiated its 2023 exploration program on March 1, 2023 and has had up to three (3) drills
operating on the Property. Fifty -nine (59) drill holes and over 15,000 m of drilling has been
8
completed to date which together closed the gap between the Powerline Zone and Aurex Hill
Zone and extended the Aurex Hill Zone further to the east. The 2023 program will include
approximately 80% of exploration drilling focused on Powerline and Aurex Hill deposits , as well
as expanding the mineralization at Aurex Hill Zone to the east, and a commiserate ~20% on new
targets.
Upcoming Events
Banyan will be participating in:
• Metals Investor Forum – May 26-27, 2023
o Corporate presentation – May 26 at 10:40 AM PDT
• Crescat Gets Activist on Gold & Silver Live Podcast – June 2, 2023 at 11 AM PDT
• John Tumazos Very Independent Research Virtual Conference – June 7, 2023 at 11:45
AM PDT
About Banyan
Banyan's primary asset, the AurMac Property is comprised of the Aurex and McQuesten
properties, as well as claims staked and owned 100% by Banyan, and adjacent to Victoria Gold's
Eagle Gold Mine, in Canada’s Yukon Territory. The updated resource for the AurMac Property of
6.2 million ounces has an effective date of May 18, 2023.
The 173 square kilometres (“sq km”) AurMac Property lies 30 km from Victoria Gold’s Eagle
Project and adjacent to Hecla Mining’s high grade Keno Hill Silver mine. The property is
transected by the main Yukon highway and access road to the Victoria Gold open-pit, heap leach
Eagle Gold mine. The AurMac Property benefits from a 3-phase powerline, existing power station
and cell phone coverage. Banyan has a right to earn up to a 100% interest, in both the Aurex and
McQuesten Properties, subject to certain royalties.
In addition to the AurMac Property, the Company holds the Hyland Gold Project, located 70 km
Northeast of Watson Lake, Yukon, along the Southeast end of the Tintina Gold Belt (the “Hyland
Project”). The Hyland Project represents a sediment hosted, s tructurally controlled, intrusion
related gold deposit, within a large land package (over 125 sq km), accessible by a network of
existing gravel access roads.
Banyan trades on the TSX -Venture Exchange under the symbol “ BYN” and is quoted on the
OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol “ BYAGF”. For more information, please visit the
corporate website at www.BanyanGold.com or contact the Company.
ON BEHALF OF BANYAN GOLD CORPORATION
(signed) "Tara Christie"
Tara Christie
President & CEO
For more information, please contact:
Tara Christie • 778 928 0556 • [email protected]
Jasmine Sangria • 604 312 5610 • [email protected]