Banyan Announces 903,945 Gold Ounce Initial Mineral Resource Estimate for the AurMac Property, Yukon, Canada
Banyan Announces 903,945 Gold Ounce Initial Mineral Resource
Estimate for the AurMac Property, Yukon, Canada
May 25, 2020 TSX-V: BYN
VANCOUVER, May 25, 2020, Banyan Gold Corp. (the "Company" or "Banyan") (TSX-V: BYN)
is pleased to announce an Initial Mineral Resource Estimate in accordance with the Canadian
Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (“CIM”) Definition Standards incorporated by
reference in National Instrument 43 -101 (“NI 43-101”) for the Aurex and McQuesten properties
(together, the “AurMac Property”) 1 located in the Mayo Mining district, approximately 56
kilometres northeast from the village of Mayo, Yukon and 356 kilometres north of Whitehorse,
Yukon.
The Initial Mineral Resource Estimate comprises a total Inferred Mineral Resource of 903,945
ounces of gold on the near surface, road accessible AurMac Property.
This pit constrained Mineral Resource is contained in two near/on-surface deposits: The Airstrip
and Powerline deposits. The Mineral Resource is summarized below:
Table 1: Pit-Constrained Inferred Mineral Resources at a 0.2 g/t Au Cut -Off – AurMac
Property
Deposit Classification Tonnage
Tonnes
Average Au
Grade
g/t
Au Content
oz.
Airstrip Inferred 45,997,911 0.524 774,926
Powerline Inferred 6,578,609 0.610 129,019
Total Combined Inferred 52,576,520 0.535 903,945
Notes to Table 1:
1. The effective date for the Mineral Resource is May 25, 2020.
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 definitions 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 exploration to define these inferred Minera l Resources as an indicated Mineral
1 Formerly referred to as the Aurex-McQuesten property in previous Company disclosure.
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 0.2 g/t Au, using a US$/CAN$ exchange rate
of 0.75 and constrained within a n open pit shell optimized with the Lerchs -Grossman algorithm to
constrain the Mineral Resources with the following estimated parameters: gold price of
US$1,500/ounce, US$1.50/t mining cost, US$2.00/t processi ng cost, UD$2.50/t G +A, 80% heap
leach recoveries, and 45° pit slope2
“We are excited with the value this initial Mineral Resource estimate generates for our
shareholders, particularly given the modest exploration expenditures by Banyan, generating
ounces at less than $2 per ounce. Both deposits are open, with mineralization known to extend
beyond the current block model boundaries.” stated Tara Christie, President and CEO. “Further,
examination of the Airstrip Mineral Resource model highlights its robust nature; when the cut-off
grade is increased by 50%, to 0.3g/t, less than15% of the ounces are reduced; while, the grade
increases by more than 20% to an average of 0.6 5 g/t. Additionally, the deposit model exercise
has identified a series of drill targets, which we are confident will meaningfully build upon this
initial Mineral Resource."
A supporting NI 43 -101 Technical Report will be filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com wit hin 45
days of this release.
Detailed images of the Mineral Resource model, including an interactive 3D model and additional
information can be found at: https://www.banyangold.com/projects/aurex-mcquesten/
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. (TSX-
V: VIT) (“Victoria Gold”) and Alexco Resource Corporation (TSX: AXR) (“Alexco”). 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 and Powerline deposits contained within the AurMac Property are both on and near-
surface deposits and potentially open pit mineable, with expected low 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 Airstrip and Powerline deposi ts are
within 1 km of each other and both within 50m of year -round access roads, have 3 -phase
powerlines and benefit from cellular communications.
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 Refer to Press Releases of the Company dated December 13, 2019, July 9, 2019 and May 25, 2017 for
further details regarding the Aurex Option Agreement and McQuesten Option Agreement.
Airstrip Deposit
The Airstrip deposit is delineated by 102 drill holes. Topographic control was 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 made of seven units mainly
oriented east-west, with six of the units dipping at approximately 40°. The bulk of the Inferred
Mineral Resources are hosted within the calcareous package, a roughly 90-metre-thick zone that
strike east west and dips approximately 35° to the south.
The most common sampling length of the Airstrip deposit is 1.5m, with approximately 40% of the
sample data; and composites were constructed at this interval. Capping of high -grade outliers
was based on lithological domains and varied from 0.4 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 contains a block size of 5m
(easting) x 5m (northing) x 5m (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 0.20 g/t Au cut-off, the pit-constrained, inferred Mineral Resources are of 46.0 million tonnes
at an average gold grade of 0.5 24 g/t for a total of 774,926 ounces of gold . Cut -off grade
sensitivities for the Airstrip deposit are presented in Table 2.
Table 2: Pit-Constrained Inferred Mineral Resources – Airstrip Deposit
Au Cut-Off
g/t
Tonnage
Tonnes
Average Au Grade
g/t
Au Content
oz.
0.10 61,300,337 0.430 847,466
0.15 53,264,976 0.476 815,154
0.20 45,997,911 0.524 774,926
0.25 38,397,872 0.583 719,725
0.30 31,869,662 0.647 662,938
0.35 26,516,484 0.712 606,998
0.40 21,676,296 0.787 548,467
0.45 18,151,272 0.857 500,125
0.50 15,513,348 0.923 460,361
Notes to Table 2:
1. The effective date for the Mineral Resource is May 25, 2020.
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 definitions 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 exploratio n will result in upgrading them to an
indicated or measured Mineral Resource category.
4. Mineral Resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.2 g/t Au, using a US$/CAN$ exchange rate
of 0.75 and constrained within an open pit shell optimized with the Lerch s-Grossman algorithm to
constrain the Mineral Resources with the following estimated parameters: gold price of
US$1,500/ounce, US$1.50/t mining cost, US$2.00/t processing cost, UD$2.50/t G+A, 80% heap
leach recoveries, and 45° pit slope
Powerline Deposit
The drill data for the Powerline deposit is comprised of 15 drill holes. The most common sampling
length of the Powe rline deposit is 1.5m, with approximately 35% of the sample data. 1.5m was
selected as the composite length and is based on the most common sampling length as well as
on the envisioned block height of 5m. Capping of high -grade outliers was based on grade
distribution domains and ranged from 4.0 g/t Au to 6.0 g/t Au.
The estimation of gold grades into a block model was carried out with the inverse distance
squared (ID2) technique on capped composites with the resultant block model containing a block
size of 5m (easting) x 5m (northing) x 5m (elevation).
At a 0.20 g/t Au cut-off, the pit-constrained, inferred Mineral Resources are of 6.6 million tonnes
at an average gold grade of 0. 61 g/t for a total of 129,019 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
Au Cut-Off
g/t
Tonnage
tonnes
Average Au Grade
g/t
Au Content
oz.
0.10 7,281,920 0.565 132,277
0.15 6,930,115 0.588 131,011
0.20 6,578,609 0.610 129,019
0.25 6,084,687 0.641 125,397
0.30 5,457,139 0.683 119,833
0.35 4,939,191 0.720 114,335
0.40 4,420,295 0.761 108,150
0.45 4,083,388 0.789 103,583
0.50 3,654,322 0.826 97,046
Notes to Table 3:
1. The effective date for the Mineral Resource is May 25, 2020.
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 definitions 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 0.2 g/t Au, using a US$/CAN$ exchange rate
of 0.75 and constrained within a n open pit shell optimized with the Lerchs -Grossman algorithm to
constrain the Mineral Resources with the following estimated parameters: gold price of
US$1,500/ounce, US$1.50/t mining cost, US$2.00/t processing cost, UD$2.50/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 q ualified 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 availab le. All
control samples were within accuracy and precision thresholds required to meet data quality
standards. These control samples amounted to approximately 10% of the all samples submitted
to analytical laboratories. A verification program of historic c ore was carried out by re -sampling
the entire length of two holes, MQ -00-004 and MQ -03-009. The percent relative difference
between the re-assays and the original assays ranged from -1.5% to +2.5%.
All geological data in the resource estimate was verifie d by Ginto Consulting Inc. (“Ginto”) as
being accurate to the extent possible and to the extent possible all geological information was
reviewed and confirmed. Ginto made site visits to the AurMac property in 2018 and 2019 and
observed Banyan’s drilling a nd sampling techniques, as well as viewed AurMac drillcore. 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 in the near future.
Qualified Persons
The Initial Mineral Resource Estimate for the AurMac Property was prepared by Marc Jutras,
P.Eng., M.A.Sc., Principal, Ginto Consulting Inc., an independent Qualified Person in accordance
with the requirements of NI 43-101, who has reviewed and approved the contents of this release.
Paul D. Gray, P.Geo., Vice President of Exploration for the Company, is a “qualified person” as
defined under NI 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the content of this news release.
Analytical Method
All drill core and RC splits collected from the 2017 to 2019 Aurex -McQuesten programs were
analyzed at Bureau Veritas Minerals of Vancouver, B.C. utilizing the aqua regia digestion ICP -
MS 36-element AQ200 analytical package with FA450 50 -gram Fire Assay wi th AAS finish for
gold on all samples. All core samples were split on -site at Banyan’s core processing facilities in
Elsa, Yukon. 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. All RC
samples were split in the field with a 3-tier riffle splitter with 87.5% of the sample being stored in
a reject poly bag and 12.5% of the sample in a submittal poly bag. Once split, both poly bags
were sealed with one part of a three-part sample tag inserted within. Samples were delivered by
Banyan personnel or a dedicated expediter to Bureau Veritas, an independent Whitehorse
preparatory laboratory where samples are prepared and then shipped to Burea u Veritas’s
Analytical laboratory in Vancouver, B.C. 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.
COVID-19 Update
Banyan has taken proactive measures to protect the health and safety of our employees and
communities from COVID 19 and exploration activities in 2020 will have additional safety
measures in place, following and exceeding all the recommendations made by the Yukon’s Chief
Medical Officer.
There have been 11 COVID-19 cases confirmed in Yukon to date, with all patients having fully
recovered. No cases have required hospitalization.
2020 Exploration Update
The geologic model validated at the Airstrip and Powerline deposits is likely applicable elsewhere
on the 92 sq. km property; including other areas such as Aurex Hill where a seven square
kilometer gold in soil anomaly has been identified. Banyan spent approximately $1.8 M on
exploration to establish the initial Mineral Resources, with a n exploration cost of less than
$2/ounce.
Banyan is in the process of planning its 2020 exploration programs, which are anticipated to
start in June. Details of exploration plans will be released when available.
About Banyan
Banyan is focused on gold exploration projects that have the geological potential, size of land
package and proximity to infrastructure that is advantageous for a mineral project to have potential
to become a mine. Our Yukon based projects both fit this mo del and our objective is to gain
shareholder value by advancing projects in our pipeline.
The Hyland Gold Project, located 70km NE of Watson Lake, Yukon, along the southeast end of
the Tintina Gold Belt is a sediment hosted, structurally controlled, intr usion related gold deposit,
with a large land package (over 125 sq. km), with the Mineral Resource contained in the Main
Zone area (900x600m) daylighting at surface and numerous other known surface gold targets.
The Main Zone oxide zone is amenable to heap leach open pit mining, with column leach
recoveries of 86%. The project has an existing gravel access road.
The 9,230 ha AurMac Property lies in close proximity to both Victoria Gold's Eagle Project and
Alexco 's Keno Hill Silver District and is highly prospective for structurally controlled, intrusion
related gold-silver mineralization in relation to the Tombstone intrusive suite. The property hosts
numerous known gold targets and Banyan has developed a mineralization model at the
McQuesten “Airstrip” and “Powerline” Gold deposits, located adjacent to the main Yukon highway
and just off the main access road to the Victoria Gold open-pit, heap leach Eagle Gold mine. The
AurMac Property benefits from a 3 -phase powerline, existing Yukon Energy Corp. switch ing
power station and cell phone coverage. Banyan has optioned the properties from Victoria Gold
and Alexco respectively with a right to earn up to a 100% subject to royalties.
Banyan trades on the TSX -Venture Exchange under the symbol “BYN”. For more i nformation,
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 David Rutt
Tel: (888) 629-0444 Tel: (888) 629-0444
Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]
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contained herein. This news release contains forward-looking information, which is not comprised of historical facts.
Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results,
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information. Forward looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, Banyan’s objectives, goals
or future plans, statements regarding exploration expectations, exploration or development plans and mineral resource
estimates. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but
are not limited to, uncertainties inherent in resource estimates , capital and operating costs varying significantly from
estimates, the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required
governmental, environmental or other project approvals, political risks, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs
of financing needed in the future, changes in equity markets, inflation, changes in exchange rates, fluctuations in
commodity prices, delays in the development of projects and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and
development industry, enhanced risks inherent to conducting business in any jurisdiction, and those risks set out in
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preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on
such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such
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