For Immediate Release. Vancouver, British Columbia, December 12, 2022. Mr. David Brett, President & CEO, Pacific Bay Minerals Ltd. (TSX Venture: PBM, “Pacific Bay” or the “Company”) reports that the Company has now received assay results for the initial drill phase conducted in September 2022, consisting of two diamond drill holes on the Atlin Goldfields Project (“the Property”) near the town of Atlin in northern British Columbia. Pacific Bay holds an option to acquire up to a 100% interest in the Property from Brixton Metals Inc.
The diamond drill holes were designed to test gold mineralization at the Yellowjacket Zone, initially identified in the 1980s as a high grade orogenic (mesothermal) gold system. Yellowjacket was subsequently diamond drilled, bulk sampled and achieved a BC Small Mine Permit in 2009. The mining operation is currently under care and maintenance.
Diamond drill hole YJ22-01, with a dip of -50o, intersected the Yellowjacket main zone returning 9.96 g/t gold over 3.05 metres (from 117.96 to 121.01 metres). Diamond drill hole YJ22-02, with a dip of -60o, stopped at 135.85 metres just entering the mineralized zone and did not return any gold values of significance.
The two diamond drill holes, collared 30 metres apart were designed to test the Yellowjacket shear/vein system immediately down dip of prior drill holes which returned high grade gold intercepts. Due to difficult ground conditions and drill issues, neither hole reached its final target depth. Hole 2 stopped within the anticipated mineralized zone when the drill rods were stuck and unable to be retrieved. The next phase of diamond drilling will utilize larger core diameters and more aggressive “mud” mixtures which will enhance drill performance and core recoveries.
“Although initial drill difficulties were encountered, we are excited by the results of this small drill program. said Pacific Bay President & CEO David Brett. “The Company’s aim is to dramatically expand drilling at Yellowjacket in 2023.”
The Yellowjacket occurrence is known to include individual, mineralized quartz veins, that are hosted within pre-existing structures, as well as zones of mineralized vein arrays. Listwanitic altered ultramafic rocks are consistently associated with the gold veins and vein arrays, with the gold most commonly hosted in gabbro, diabase, basalt and andesite (brittle, crackle fractured rocks) in fault contact with ultramafic rocks. Free gold mineralization occurs as scatted coarse native gold grains associated with minor pyrite, chromite and mariposite (Morton, J., 2022; Technical Report on the Atlin GoldFields Project: Sedar/Pacific Bay Minerals Inc.).
The Company is planning to complete detailed 3D imagery of the Yellowjacket Zone in order to best determine the next phase drill locations. Prior drilling at Yellowjacket has consisted largely of very shallow drill holes, averaging just over 100 metre depths. The next drill phase will look at gaps in drill data within the Yellowjacket gold mineralization as well as expanding the zone to depth. The additional drilling is dependent upon financing.
Quality Assurance/Quality Control (“QA/QC”)
Pacific Bay’s QA/QC procedures include one each of blank, field duplicate, and standard inserted into the sample stream for every 20 drill core samples. At site, core samples are sawed in half, with one half bagged, zip-tied and delivered to ALS Limited’s laboratory’s facility in Whitehorse, YT. The second half of the core is returned to the core box for storage. From Whitehorse, the samples are trucked to ALS main laboratory in North Vancouver, BC for preparation and analyses. The field inserted standards (certified reference materials) were purchased from CDN Resource Laboratories Ltd. of Langley, British Columbia.
The majority of the samples are analyzed for gold by fire assay with an atomic absorption finish. Due to historically reported coarse gold, samples within the quartz breccia fault zone are analysed by the metallic screen method, where 1 kg of pulp is screened to 106 microns, followed by duplicate 50 g assays on screen undersize plus an assay of entire oversize fraction. All samples will are also analysed for 41 additional elements by the ICP- MS method.
ALS Limited North Vancouver laboratory conforms with the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:2017 and the conditions for accreditation as established by SCC and is recognized as an accredited testing laboratory. In the laboratory, blanks (analytical and method), coarse duplicates and standard reference materials are internally inserted in the sequences of client samples. Using these inserted quality control samples each analytical batch and complete job is rigorously reviewed and validated by ALS prior to release.
Linda Dandy, P.Geo., Technical Advisor for the Company and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release.
About Pacific Bay Minerals Limited
Pacific Bay Minerals is a Canadian mineral exploration company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, and development of mining projects. Pacific Bay Minerals is focused on advancing its flagship project, Atlin Goldfields, located in Atlin, British Columbia, with a 56,569-hectare package of mineral tenures. The company also holds 100% interest in three mineral properties located in British Columbia: Wheaton Creek Gold, Haskins Reed, and Weaver Gold. Pacific Bay aspires to see its environmentally responsible exploration and development activities bring meaningful benefits to the communities in which it operates.
Pacific Bay Minerals Ltd.
Per/
David Brett, President and CEO
dbrett@pacificbayminerals.com
(604) 682-2421
