Under the definitive agreements, Banyan can earn a 51% interest in both properties with staged expenditures and share payments over 4 years. The company also has the right to earn a 100% interest in the properties additional expenditures and share payments.
Tara Christie, President & CEO commented: “The 2017 exploration and data compilation programme has positioned Banyan to begin to unlock the value of the large Aurex-McQuesten land package. Drilling results at the two target areas, the McQuesten and Aurex Hill Zones, chosen for drilling in 2017 confirmed and extended the known near-surface gold mineralisation in these two areas.”
“The Aurex and McQuesten properties are contiguous properties that comprise approximately 8230 ha and 1000 ha respectively, and together represent a large property that is highly prospective for intrusive-related gold mineralisation which includes zones of historic gold production (lode and placer), in the prolific Mayo Mining District, Yukon Territory.
Banyan’s inaugural exploration programme at the Aurex-McQuesten Project consisted of a property wide geochemical soil survey (1114 soil samples), 464 m of trench sampling, inclusive of the reopening/remapping of historic trenches (235 trench samples) along with a 1422 m diamond drill programme from 10 holes.
The exploration target at the Aurex-McQuesten Project is near surface gold mineralisation in meta-sedimentary host rocks related to an interpreted buried intrusive stocks. Structural traps are known to control intrusion-related gold-silver mineralisation in this area and defined gold mineralisation on the property occurs in sheeted quartz veins, silicified skarn horizons, and quartz-monzonite dykes similar to mineralisation at Victoria Gold’s nearby Eagle Gold Project, as well as silver mineralisation related to faults similar to those found at Alexco’s Keno Hill Silver District.
