VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESS Newswire / April 30, 2025 / Banyan Gold Corp. (the "Company" or "Banyan") (TSXV:BYN)(OTCQB:BYAGF) is pleased to announce that it has completed 19 diamond drillholes and 4500 m of the 30,000 metre ("m") program at the AurMac Project ("AurMac" or the "Project"), Yukon Territory. The fully funded 30,000 m diamond drill program commenced on April 1, 2025.
"Our 2025 program at AurMac has started strong with three drills turning at AurMac," said Tara Christie, President and CEO, "we have an exciting year ahead with targets to follow up on high-grade results at Airstrip, testing possible extensions of the mineralized envelope of the deposit at both AirStrip and Powerline, and other regional targets. The first part of the program has been planned to strategically take advantage of snowpack and frozen ground."
"Core from initial drilling strongly validates our drill plan, with visible gold discovered for the first time in our high-grade skarn mineralization at Airstrip in AX-25-650," stated Duncan Mackay, Vice President of Exploration. "Diamond drillholes AX-25-650 and AX-25-652 follow up on AX-24-590 from 2024 which intersected 15.9 m at 9.32 g/t Au (see News Release February 19, 2025). These intersections of visible gold in association with consistent skarn style mineralization support our improved understanding of the near-surface, high-grade mineralization at Airstrip following our 2024 program. We have continued to trace this mineralization in the up-dip direction with the goal to delineate more of this near-surface high-grade domain. Visible Gold and veining are typical of Powerline mineralization, and continue to be observed in core from expansion holes targeting the Powerline deposit."
Drillhole AX-25-650 was drilled to test continuity of relative high-grade mineralization associated with the contact between a felsic dyke and calcareous metasediment. Visible gold (see Figures 1 & 2 below) was observed in dyke-skarn mineralization for the first time at the Airstrip Deposit. Initial review of drill core suggests consistent high-grade gold mineralization with good continuity, spatially associated with the felsic dyke contact in both the hanging wall and foot wall.
Figure 1: Instances of visible gold observed in the Airstrip Deposit from drill holes AX-25-650 and AX-25-652. Left and right: visible gold is observed in discordant quartz veins and is often associated with bismuthinite, arsenopyrite, pyrrhotite, and pyrite.
Figure 2: Visible gold associated with "skarn" style mineralization in calc-silicate altered calcareous metasedimentary rock containing semi-massive pyrrhotite and fine- to coarse-grained arsenopyrite and pyrite.
Airstrip Deposit
Drillhole AX-25-650 was drilled to a length of 225.55 m at an azimuth of 245° and dip of -50° with the goal of testing continuity of calc-silicate hornfels alteration and related mineralization in proximity to the felsic dyke-calcareous metasedimentary rock contact. The drillhole successfully intersected several sections of "skarn" style mineralization with semi-massive pyrrhotite and coarse-grained arsenopyrite and pyrite, typical of relatively high-grade gold mineralization in Airstrip as well as the first instance of visible gold in this style of mineralization observed at site (Figures 3 and 4). Visible gold was also observed in AX-25-650 associated with a discordant quartz vein typical of mineralization observed in the Powerline Deposit.
Figure 3: Plan map of Airstrip Deposit showing location of 2025 diamond drill holes. Section line for Figure 3 (black line) denotes orientation of hole AX-25-650, designed to test continuity of high-grade zones.
Figure 4: A cross section showing the trace for AX-25-650 and the approximate location of visible gold occurrences (yellow stars). These visible gold occurrences are the first instances associated with calc-silicate hornfels related mineralization. High-grade gold mineralization in Airstrip is associated with semi-massive pyrrhotite mineralization, arsenopyrite, and pyrite in "skarn" style contact aureoles associated with felsic dykes intruding into calcareous metasedimentary rocks.
Qualified Persons
Duncan Mackay, P.Geo., is a "Qualified Person" as defined under National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"), and has reviewed and approved the content of this news release in respect of all disclosure other than the MRE. Mr. Mackay is VP Exploration for Banyan and has verified the data disclosed in this news release, including the sampling, analytical and test data underlying the information.
About Banyan
Banyan's primary asset, the AurMac Project is located in Canada's Yukon Territory. The current inferred Mineral Resource Estimate ("MRE") for the AurMac Project of 7.0 million ounces has an effective date of February 6, 2024. The 215.3 square kilometres ("sq km") AurMac Project lies 40 km from Mayo, Yukon. The AurMac Project is transected by the main Yukon highway and benefits from a 3-phase powerline, existing power station and cell phone coverage. Banyan has the right to earn up to a 100% interest, in both the Aurex and McQuesten Properties respectively, subject to certain royalties.
The inferred MRE for the AurMac Project was prepared on February 6, 2024, and consisted of 7,003,000 ounces of gold (see Table 1) hosted within near surface, road accessible pit constrained Mineral Resources contained in two near/on-surface deposits: the Airstrip and Powerline Deposits.
Table 1: Pit-Constrained Inferred Mineral Resources - AurMac Project
Deposit
Gold Cut-Off (g/t)
Tonnage (Tonnes)
Average Gold Grade (g/t)
Contained Gold (oz.)
Inferred
Airstrip
0.30
35,243,000
0.75
845,000
Powerline
0.30
312,243,000
0.61
6,158,000
Total Combined
0.30
347,486,00
0.63
7,003,000
Notes:
The effective date for the MRE is February 6, 2024, and was prepared by Marc Jutras, P.Eng., M.A.Sc., Principal, Ginto Consulting Inc., an independent Qualified Person in accordance with the requirements of NI43-101. The technical report supporting the Resource Estimate entitled "AurMac Property, Mayo Mining District, Yukon Territory, Canada" (the "Technical Report") has been filed on SEDAR at www.sedarplus.ca on March 18, 2024.
Mineral Resources, which are not Mineral Reserves, do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, sociopolitical, marketing, changes in global gold markets or other relevant issues.
The CIM Definition Standards were followed for classification of Mineral Resources. The quantity and grade of reported Inferred Mineral Resources in this estimation are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define these Inferred Mineral Resources as an Indicated Mineral Resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading them to an Indicated or Measured Mineral Resource category.
Mineral Resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.30 g/t gold for all deposits, using a US$/CAN$ exchange rate of 0.75 and constrained within an open pit shell optimized with the Lerchs-Grossman algorithm to constrain the Mineral Resources with the following estimated parameters: gold price of US$1,800/ounce, US$2.50/t mining cost, US$5.50/t processing cost, US$2.00/t G+A, 80% gold recoveries, and 45° pit slopes.
The number of tonnes and ounces was rounded to the nearest thousand. Any discrepancies in the totals are due to rounding effects; rounding followed the recommendations as per NI 43-101.
In addition to the AurMac Project, the Company holds the Hyland Gold Project, located 70 km Northeast of Watson Lake, Yukon, along the Southeast end of the Tintina Gold Belt (the "Hyland Project"). The Hyland Project represents a sediment hosted, structurally controlled, intrusion related gold deposit, within a large land package (over 125 sq km), accessible by a network of existing gravel access roads.
Banyan also holds the Nitra Gold Project, a grassroots exploration project located in the Mayo Mining district, approximately 10 kilometres ("km") west of the AurMac Gold property. The Nitra Property lies in the northern part of the Selwyn basin and is underlain by metaclastic rocks of the Late Proterozoic Yusezyu Formation of the Hyland Group, similar to lithologies hosting portions of the AurMac Project. Middle Cretaceous Tombstone Plutonic suite intrusions occur along the property including the Morrison Creek and Minto Creek stocks. The property is 100% owned and operated by Banyan Gold Corporation ("Banyan") and covers approximately 313.9 sq km. The property is accessible by road along the Silver Trail Highway, South McQuesten Road and 4x4 roads.
Banyan trades on the TSX-Venture Exchange under the symbol "BYN" and is quoted on the OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol "BYAGF". For more information, please visit the corporate website at or contact the Company.
ON BEHALF OF BANYAN GOLD CORPORATION
(signed) "Tara Christie" Tara Christie President & CEO
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT: Neither the TSX Venture Exchange, its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) nor OTCQB Venture Market accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.
FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION: This news release contains forward-looking information, which is not comprised of historical facts and is based upon the Company's current internal expectations, estimates, projections, assumptions and beliefs. Such information can generally be identified by the use of forwarding-looking wording such as "may", "will", "expect", "estimate", "anticipate", "intend(s)", "believe", "potential" and "continue" or the negative thereof or similar variations. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, the Company's plans for exploration; and statements regarding exploration expectations, mineralized continuity, exploration or development plans and timelines; mineral resource estimates; mineral recoveries and anticipated mining costs. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include uncertainties inherent in resource estimates, continuity and extent of mineralization, capital and operating costs varying significantly from estimates, the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, environmental or other project approvals, political risks, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, changes in equity markets, inflation, changes in exchange rates, fluctuations in commodity prices, and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, enhanced risks inherent to conducting business in any jurisdiction, timing and risk of earning the final 25% earn-in on the properties and those risks set out in Banyan's public documents filed on SEDAR. Although Banyan believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. Banyan disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.
