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.
Epic is pushing all four of its projects toward updated estimates. Speaking with The Deep Dive at the Beaver Creek Precious Metals Summit ahead of the release, President and CEO Rod Husband said the historical numbers were struck at gold prices no higher than US$1,800 per ounce. “So let’s bring them current, see what we have,” he said.
McKinnon is a 3.7-kilometre shear-hosted orogenic deposit, with most of the resource within roughly 200 metres of surface. In the release, Husband said what stands out is “how little of the broader system has been tested.”
He has also argued that a deposit of this size doesn’t need its own mill to work, given underutilized processing capacity near the company’s projects. “We have the ability to truck to the existing mill, so we can find a lot less and still make it economic,” he said.
Epic plans to explore the wider Puskuta Deformation Zone to establish the lateral extent of 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 approved, Epic is advancing McKinnon, Debroy and Goldfields toward Phase I diamond drilling.
Epic Gold last traded at $0.25 on the CSE.
