Recent Drill Program At The Snowstorm Project


TORONTO - Seabridge Gold's recent drill program at its Snowstorm Project has been completed and samples are being processed for assay. Drilling targeted the structural zones with anomalous gold encountered in previous drill campaigns. Snowstorm is located 15 kilometers north of Turquoise Ridge on an extension of the prolific Getchell Trend. This off set drill program was designed to increase the number of intersections on a gold-bearing, structurally controlled intrusion to help vector towards higher grades. The latest drilling re-entered completed holes from past campaigns, using directional drilling tools to deviate from the original targets. The newly completed drilling totaled 1,320 meters of exploration drilling utilizing 982 meters of previous work.

Rudi Fronk, Chairman and CEO, said, "Conditions around advancing this project remain challenging but incremental progress continues. We knew a multi-year exploration program would be required to advance a deep blind target and we remain confident of the potential. Integrating these new results into our understanding is expected to further define targeting in our next campaign designed to advance towards discovery of a Turquoise Ridge style opportunity.”

The 2021 program was designed to offset results from 2020, where two holes encountered sheared and altered zones of intrusive rock with gold, arsenic, and silver concentrations one to two orders of magnitude above background concentrations. Shearing and alteration in these rocks indicated to us that a thrust fault within the favorable Paleozoic stratigraphy, intruded by an intermediate composition igneous rock, had provided a pathway for gold-bearing fluids. This program targeted the intersection of the thrust fault near an identified north-south fault zone.

Drill hole CC-21-23C re-entered previous hole 23. After several failed attempts to use directional tools, CC-23C deviated correctly from the mother hole at 532 meters and advanced toward the target. Drilling was terminated at 924 meters when the casing shifted during a bit service and the drill string could not return to bottom. Observations and assay results from this hole indicate it was sited in the expected stratigraphy to encounter the desired target.

Drill hole CC-21-24A was sited on the original CC-24 position, the daughter hole deviated at 452 meters and continued to completion at 1,379 meters. Poor rock conditions and high ground water pressures were encountered in this hole but were rectified by slowly and methodically advancing the drill hole casing. Observations from CC-21-24A tracked closely with CC-20-24, providing a good stratigraphic column above the target. Intervals of intermediate intrusive rocks were cut between 1,301 and 1,358 meters. Assay results are pending for CC-21-24A and are expected to provide better understanding of the scale of the thrust fault target along with gold and pathfinder element dispersion around intrusions. We expect important data from this hole.