Canadian gold and copper company Seabridge Gold has mobilised new crews to the KSM project, in north-western British Columbia, for a three-part programme aimed at improving its understanding of the project and its district scale potential.

The programme aims to evaluate the potential for additional gold/copper porphyry systems below the Sulphurets thrust fault (STF), to follow-up high-grade epithermal gold intercepts in the area of the Sulphurets deposit and to update the Sulphurets resource estimate where recent drilling likely expanded the deposit.

“Our first priority at KSM has been to ensure that the project is ready for final feasibility efforts when a partner is secured. Now that this objective has been accomplished, we are intent on improving our understanding of the entire project,” chairperson and CEO Rudi Fronk said on Tuesday.

The first exploration target would focus on new porphyry deposits. Over the past decade, Seabridge has delineated reserves and resources at four deposits that were exposed on the erosional margin of the STF. Continuous exploration at KSM since 2005 has recognised the potential for undiscovered porphyry deposits west of the exposed deposits and at depth below the STF system. Several potential blind targets have been identified, but did not merit attention, while the corporate focus was on delineating resources and reserves to the point where the information was sufficient to prepare for final feasibility determination.

Seabridge explained that the key to this season’s programme was to use deep penetrating geophysical techniques west of the deposits and under the STF to refine potential drill targets. These targets could be relatively deep; however underground development planned for KSM could improve the economic potential of these targets.

The company said that although these targets would likely only be developed well into the project’s mine life, early identification could avoid conflict with proposed surface infrastructure.

The second exploration target will focus on previously discovered zones that were not followed up at the time because of other priorities and the third would update the Sulphurets resource by incorporating ten holes that had been completed since the last update seven years ago.