Mineral Exploration

Winter 2015

Mineral Exploration is the official publication of the Association of Mineral Exploration British Columbia.

Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/611178

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 11 of 79

12 W I N T E R 2 0 1 5 Photograph : Pretium Re source s Inc . the world. Proven and probable reserves total 38.2 million ounces of gold and 9.9 billion pounds of copper. In 2013, Seabridge found a new deposit, the Deep Kerr, which has the highest metal values discovered at KSM to date. An initial resource estimate for Deep Kerr released in early 2014 confirmed an inferred resource of 515 million tonnes grading 0.53 per cent copper and 0.36 grams per tonne gold (6.1 billion pounds of copper and 5.9 million ounces of gold). A new exploration program began in June 2014 to expand Deep Kerr and to search for additional higher-grade depos- its. In September 2014, the company announced the discovery of a higher- grade deposit beneath the Iron Cap deposit. Exploration in 2013 and 2014 at KSM added a total of almost one billion tonnes of better-grade resources. In May 2015 a new drill program was started at Deep Kerr. The main targets are a possible higher-grade core zone beneath Mitchell, KSM's largest deposit, and an expansion of the block-cave shapes that would be mined from underground at Deep Kerr. Thanks to all of this good news, Seabridge has had no difficulty raising money, says chairman and CEO Rudi Fronk. "We're in a unique situation," he says. "In addition to a great asset, we have a solid shareholder base that is about 50/50 institutional and retail. It's a good mix for us. The investors understand what we're trying to do at KSM, and, as a result, we have been able to raise funds in any market condition." Fronk says an important reason for Seabridge's ability to raise money is its consistent message to shareholders. "In every annual report we explain what we did in the previous year and lay out our direction for the next year," he says. Fronk says flow-through shares are "a great structure" for raising money. "The last three or four flow-throughs raised investment that was at a premium of 25 percent or more to our share price." Fronk says Seabridge is looking ahead to the future. " KSM is the larg- est undeveloped gold-copper deposit in the world," Fronk says. "It's beyond our ability to develop it ourselves. We want to attract a partner, one of the majors, to develop it. There are fewer than 10 com- panies in the world who can do the job, and we've been talking to them." Another high-profile project that lies near the red line is Pretium Resources Inc.'s 100-per-cent-owned, advanced- stage Brucejack project. Brucejack is part of a largely unexplored land package of over 103,000 hectares. The focus of the project is the Valley of the Kings, which

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Mineral Exploration - Winter 2015