Epic Gold (CSE: EPG) has released its first current mineral resource estimate for the McKinnon deposit at the Hawkins gold project in northern Ontario, outlining 440,400 ounces of gold in the inferred category.
The estimate, prepared by P&E Mining Consultants, totals 14.0 million tonnes grading 0.98 g/t gold. It’s split between material inside a conceptual open pit shell and higher-grade material below it that could be mined underground.
Highlights from the estimate include:
- Pit-constrained inferred resources of 12.6 million tonnes grading 0.89 g/t gold
- Containing 360,000 ounces of gold
- Underground inferred resources of 1.4 million tonnes grading 1.82 g/t gold
- Containing 80,400 ounces of gold
- Total inferred resources of 14.0 million tonnes grading 0.98 g/t gold
- Containing 440,400 ounces of gold
The pit-constrained portion was reported at a 0.24 g/t gold cut-off and the underground portion at 1.2 g/t, using a gold price of US$3,500 per ounce and 93% recovery. That recovery assumption is based on cyanidation testwork Falconbridge completed on 7 samples in 1985, and no modern metallurgical work has yet been done on the project.
The new figure replaces a 2020 historical estimate of 328,800 ounces at 1.65 g/t gold on 6.2 million tonnes. The latest model draws on 185 drill holes totalling 33,414 metres, including 40 holes completed since that report, and Epic had said earlier this week that the update would also evaluate lower cut-off grades. The result is more than 100,000 additional ounces at a lower average grade.
McKinnon is a 3.7 kilometre shear-hosted orogenic deposit, with most of the resource sitting within roughly 200 metres of surface. It includes the past producing Shenango gold mine and lies along the Puskuta Deformation Zone, a structure the company interprets as linking the Destor-Porcupine and Hemlo deformation zones.
President and CEO Rod Husband said what stands out is “how little of the broader system has been tested,” noting that McKinnon covers only a portion of a much longer mineralized structure.
Epic plans to explore the wider Puskuta zone to establish the lateral extent of gold mineralization, followed by depth extension and infill drilling aimed at growing the resource and upgrading its confidence. The company is also weighing modern metallurgical testwork.
That work builds on a summer program across a 15 kilometre mineralized corridor, where channel sampling at the Goldfields target returned 9.42 g/t gold over 11.0 metres. With an early exploration permit now approved, Epic is advancing McKinnon, Debroy and Goldfields toward Phase I diamond drilling.
Epic Gold last traded at $0.25 on the CSE.
