TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Vancouver-based explorer Pretium Resources on Wednesday said that initial results from surface drilling in the ‘Valley of the Kings’ at its flagship Brucejack project, in British Columbia, had confirmed that the gold mineralisation extended below the block model for the December resource estimate.

The TSX- and NYSE-listed company reported that a surface drilling programme comprising three deep geological holes collared near the Brucejack camp and drilled to the south was under way to test gold mineralisation at depth in the Valley of the Kings.

The results from hole SU-627 (1 158 m) demonstrated the significant untested exploration potential at the Valley of the Kings. Among the top assay results for the drill hole was an interval of 10.93 m from a depth of 513 m, which measured 43.57 g/t gold and 29.22 g/t silver. Some sections of the interval contained bonanza grades as high as 531 g/t gold and 200 g/t silver.

The high-grade gold intersections encountered between 500 m and 600 m down hole in SU-627 were interpreted to be the down-dip extension of the northern part of the Valley of the Kings. The mineralisation encountered at depth from 900 m to 1 121 m down hole was more than 500 m below the deepest intersections used in the December 2013 Valley of the Kings mineral resource estimate.

Drilling in hole SU-628 (750 m) had been completed, and drilling in hole SU-629 (900 m planned) had just started.

Pretium in December announced that it had topped its target of producing 4 000 oz of gold from a bulk sampling programme at the Brucejack project. Through its Valley of the Kings bulk sample programme, Pretium reported it had recovered 5 865 oz of gold from 10 302 t of dry ore. The company also reported that it had recovered 4 950 oz of silver.

Further, underground drilling in the Valley of the Kings from the 1 345-level access ramp is planned to target a deep zone of indicated resources, scheduled to start in July after infrastructure upgrades at site had been completed.

The company said that it remained on track to finalise its environmental assessment certificate application and expects to file it with the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office (BCEAO) by the end of the month.

Once filed, the application would be evaluated for completeness over a 30-day period by BCEAO, with the involvement of a working group, including representatives of First Nations and local governments and other government agencies. Once the application has been accepted, the BCEAO had a maximum of 180 days to complete its review and prepare an assessment report for a decision by the Minister of Environment and the Minister of Energy and Mines.

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency will review the environmental-impact statement in coordination with the British Columbia provincial permitting process, which Pretium expects to submit in July.

Meanwhile, a feasibility study for a 2 700 t/d underground mine at Brucejack is on track to be complete this month.

Pretium said that it was amending the June 2013 feasibility study for the Brucejack project, based on the latest resource estimate, using base case metal prices of $1 100/oz gold, $17/oz silver and a Canadian/US dollar exchange rate of C$0.92.