Eskay Announces SSR Mining to Proceed with Second Year of SIB Option

Eskay Announces that SSR Mining Inc. will Proceed with Second Year of SIB Option Agreement; Planning Underway for 2018 Exploration Drilling Program

Toronto, Ontario (FSCwire) – Eskay Mining Corp. (“Eskay” or the “Company”) (TSX-V:ESK) (OTC-PK: ESKYF) (Frankfurt: KN7; WKN: A0YDPM) is pleased to announce that SSR Mining Inc. (formerly Silver Standard Resources Inc.) (NASDAQ: SSRM) (TSX: SSRM) (“SSRM”) has elected to proceed with the second year of a three year option agreement with the Company on the SIB property. SSRM may earn an undivided 51% interest by spending an aggregate of $11.7 million in exploration expenditures over the term of the agreement. SSRM may earn a further 9% undivided interest for an aggregate 60% undivided interest by delivering either a preliminary economic assessment or completing an aggregate of 23,000 meters of diamond drilling (see April 26^th, 2017 news release).  Eskay is also pleased to announce the final assay results from the 2017 diamond drill program at the SIB property.

The 2017 drill program at the SIB property was designed to test for precious metals enriched massive sulphide mineralization and prospective stratigraphy beneath the Coulter Creek Thrust Fault (CCFT). The SIB property lies immediately south-southwest along strike from Barrick Gold Corporation’s past-producing Eskay Creek Mine.  Ten of the twelve drillholes completed in 2017 targeted the footwall of the CCTF (Figure 1).  All holes intersected favourable Salmon River Formation rocks, which closely resemble host rocks at the mine.  Cross sections illustrating the interpreted geology of the CCTF footwall, which were constructed from geological, geophysical and downhole structural data, are shown in Figures 2, 3 and 4.

with footwall alteration in a volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) setting (variably intense chlorite-sericite alteration); local sulphide-bearing veins were also intersected in a number of holes. Assays from the 2017 drilling are suggestive of the presence of two styles of mineralization: 1) disseminated sulphides hosting anomalous pathfinder elements within carbonaceous mudstone; and 2) polymetallic sulphide veins, locally up to 10 cm thick, consisting of pyrite, pyrrhotite, sphalerite, galena, +/- chalcopyrite and arsenopyrite. The former style occurs in mudstone stratigraphically overlying rocks correlative with the Eskay Creek Mine footwall rhyolite, and it has a similar geochemical signature to mineralization observed along the fringes of stratiform ore bodies at the mine. The polymetallic veins are hosted within the Eskay-type footwall rhyolite. A list of drillhole highlights from the 2017 drill program is given in Table 1.

In addition to intersecting encouraging mineralization and extensive alteration, the 2017 drill program greatly improved the Company’s geologic understanding of the CCTF and its footwall. The surface location of the fault and its sub-surface geometry are now constrained, and the drilling confirmed that the footwall stratigraphy bears strong similarities with rocks hosting the Eskay Creek deposits. There also appears to be an extensive area of altered Coulter Creek footwall rocks west and south of the area drilled in 2017 that are reachable with the drill. Therefore, there remains potential for Eskay-style discoveries at the SIB property, and target generation for the 2018 summer drill program at the property is currently underway. It will systematically test the extensive and favourable Eskay stratigraphy to the west and south of the 2017 drill area for precious metals enriched VMS mineralization.

Table 1 – 2017 Drillhole Highlights