Scottie Resources (SCOT) - Blueberry Gold Project Continues to Deliver

Scottie Resources Corp. is a junior gold exploration company focused on its assets in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia, Canada. The company has exploration rights to more than 59,000 hectares of land in the southern portion of the golden triangle, which includes the previously producing Scottie gold mine, which operated between 1981 and 1985 and produced more than 95,000 ounces of gold in this time at an average grade of 16.2 g/t.  The Scottie gold mine project possesses an active mining permit as well as an existing 200 ton per day mill.

The Blueberry Contact zone forms part of the Scottie gold mine project and is located 2 km north-northeast of the past-producing and 100% owned high-grade Scottie Gold mine. The Blueberry Contact zone was significantly advanced in 2019 by the company when it intercepted 7.44 g/t of gold over 34.78 m.  Scottie Resources Corp. has since 2019 advanced the zone to a strike length of more than 1,450 m and completed approximately 15,000 m of exploration drilling at the Blueberry Contact zone in 2022.

Scottie Resources Corp. has throughout January 2023 released various assay results from its exploration drilling initiatives conducted in 2022 at the Blueberry Contact Zone. The assay results have included mineralisation intervals of up to 194 g/t of gold over 2.4 m, 4.61 g/t of gold over 2.5 m and 34.5 g/t of gold over 4.7 m.

Scottie Resources Corp. plans to conduct 20,000 m to 25,000 m of expansion and infill drilling at the Scottie gold mine project in 2023. The company also plans to raise funds in 2023, with the proceeds thereof earmarked for its envisioned exploration initiatives.

The Scottie gold mine project

The Scottie gold mine project of the company holds a land position of approximately 8,500 hectares and is located 32 km north of Stewart, British Columbia. The project consists of 20 mineral claims and 14 Crown-granted claims and includes the past-producing Scottie gold mine. The mine operated between 1981 and 1985 and produced approximately 95 thousand ounces of gold in that time at an average feed grade of 16.2 g/t.

The project holds an active mining permit and is readily accessible through Granduc Road with the Brucejack Power Transmission Line 1 km east of the project. The project holds a 200-ton-per-day mill as well as underground infrastructure including 6 portals, shafts, a rail system, and 7 km of drifts. Thomas Mumford, the Vice President of Exploration for the company, explains that he used to form part of exploration teams in the summers in his off-time from being a lecturer. In the last summer exploration program he formed part of he met the CEO of Scottie Resources Corp. Brad Rourke.

“One of my last summer jobs, when I was working at BCIT, was a re-logging program on a small historic goldmine up in North-western BC, which turns out to be Scottie Resources. At the time, it had a different name. It was about to go through a rebranding, so I met the CEO, Brad Rourke, up in the field. It was a team of 6 of us there. Brad was the cook, his son was the helper, and we just got to work re-logging some of the historic core. The geology was exceptional, it was a small land package, but it had a lot of upside and a lot of catalysts in the area.”

Mumford states that the mineralogy and the historical context of the project’s exploration enticed him to join the company full-time in 2018. The project had not seen a large and targeted exploration program at that stage and was previously wrongly explored.

“They had grades in the order of 18 g to 20 g. It was a vein that was exposed at the surface. It was mined underground, and if you took the whole data set of all the drill holes, the average drill hole length was only 75 m, which means really, that's just production drilling; they were just poking along trying to find out which way that vein was going. There was no concerted effort to have a large-scale exploration program other than some surface work.”

The Blueberry Contact zone

The Blueberry Contact zone forms part of the Scottie Gold Mine project and is located 2 km north-northeast of the past-producing and 100% owned high-grade Scottie Gold mine. The Blueberry Contact zone was significantly advanced in 2019 by the company when it intercepted 7.44 g/t of gold over 34.78 m.  Scottie Resources Corp. has since 2019 advanced the zone to a strike length of more than 1,450 m and completed approximately 15,000 m of exploration drilling at the Blueberry Contact zone in 2022. Mumford explains that the company since acquiring the Blueberry Contact zone has focused on its exploration.

“One of the big breakthroughs we had as a company within, I think, the first 18 months of me coming on was that we acquired a huge land package that surrounded the historic Scottie gold mine, and as well as the claim package that held the Blueberry vein, which is now the Blueberry contact zone. Within that period, we basically expanded the land position and we made a really concerted push to a regional exploration program or a property-scale regional exploration on the Scottie goldmine.”

The company has systematically been conducting its exploration initiatives at the project, with it having started with reviewing historical data as well as fieldwork programs to its current exploration drilling initiatives.

“It was definitely a systematic approach to exploration. We started with boots-on-the-ground fieldwork. We reviewed historical geophysics. We updated geophysical surveys, put that into exploration-style drilling on some targets that had mineralization at the surface, and then progressed that along to what we're doing today.”

The company has also conducted various exploration initiatives at the Blueberry Contact Zone according to Mumford, which have included 3D IP surveys and loop EM surveys. Mumford explains that the combination of 3D IP surveys and Loop EM surveys have enabled the company to identify the mineralisation of the contact zone effectively in a small time frame.

“We've done 3D IP, and we've also done loop EM. The 3D IP works really well with identifying the contact, that contrast between the siltstone and andesite. Loop EM, like ground-based EM, that does a very good job of identifying where these sulphide-rich cross structures hit. The combination of those two techniques has been the most instrumental targeting tool in terms of geophysics for us to identify mineralization.”

Scottie Resources Corp. has throughout January 2023 released various assay results from its exploration drilling initiatives conducted in 2022 at the Blueberry Contact Zone. The assay results have included mineralisation intervals of up to 194 g/t of gold over 2.4 m, 4.61 g/t of gold over 2.5 m and 34.5 g/t of gold over 4.7 m.

2023 Exploration Plans

Mumford explains that Scottie Resources Inc. aims to show continuity in the mineralisation of the Scottie gold mine project in 2023.

“One of the things we are trying to do is show that there are not just some high-grade shoots; these things fill in as more of a panel. We've extended it down to about 400 m in depth, and the strike now is well over 1,500 m, so we've doubled the strike length of the system.”

Scottie Resources Corp. plans to conduct 20,000 to 25,000 m of expansion and infill drilling at the Scottie gold mine project in 2023. The company also plans to raise funds in 2023, with the proceeds thereof earmarked for its envisioned exploration initiatives.

“I think we are at the point where we need to show that there's the capacity for a deposit that's substantially larger than what we have now. The way we do that is by stepping out instead of doing infill drilling. The cost of capital is our limiting feature right now, on how much money we can raise with the dilution to the existing shareholders. What we're planning right now is a program in the order of 20,000 m-25,000 m, really focused on the expansion of and an infill, not at a resource level, but in a model-type way, so that we can show continuity”

Scottie Resources Corp. plans to conduct additional exploration initiatives on various other targets of the Scottie Gold Mine project. Mumford explains that the exploration initiatives of the company in 2023 will include previously unexplored targets as well as ancillary targets of the Blueberry contact zone.

“There's certainly a need for continued exploration on far-field targets at the same time. We have an exceptional land package with a lot of high-grade showings. This is by far the one that's progressing the fastest and holding together very well, but there's a certain portion of drilling that every year we allocate to new targets that we haven't advanced before. That's in the order of 5% to 10% of that, and then there are some ancillary targets to the Blueberry contact zone.”

2023 Catalysts

Scottie Resources Corp. will by the end of February 2023 have published all outstanding results from its exploration drilling at the Blueberry Contact zone. The company will after this be able to publish its detailed exploration drilling program. The company will also look to conduct a financing in the coming year from where it will initiate its infill and exploration drilling program in mid-June.

“We will be remodelling it and pushing out what our exploration plan is, what those holes look like and what we hope to achieve this year. We will be completing a financing sometime in early winter, to outline how we're going to drill what we've set out to drill. After that, it's the build-up to the drill program itself. We're drilling mid-to-late-June this year with a lower-than-average snowpack, as we're seeing right now.”

The planned exploration drilling program occurs in mid-June to ensure good weather and according to Mumford enable a more cost-effective drilling program.

“…our drilling season has been limited based on good weather, and we've only been operating snow-free to lower our drill costs, given the tight capital structure that we've been operating with. If you look at other neighbours around us, you've got Skeena and Tudo, who operate throughout the winter, but there's a premium to be paid for that. Our drill costs will go up substantially, but we could have a longer window if capital wasn't the biggest concern for us.”

The company will also be focused on effectively allocating its fund in 2023 to show the potential of the Scottie gold mine project. Mumford explains that by showcasing the project’s potential to the market, the company will be able to create the most value for its shareholders.

“What we've identified so far, to drill that off to inferred with a bit of indicated in it, would be a significant amount of money that we could push towards showing that this thing has the potential to be 2 to 3 times larger than that. That's where we see the value-add for our shareholders at this point. At some point, people are going to want to know exactly how many ounces are in here and what that looks like, but as long as we're expanding as quickly as we've been doing over the last few years, the shareholders that we have now all agree that we should show how big this is.”

To find out more, go to the Scottie Resources website