Resource World Magazine

56 www.resourceworld.com D E C E M B E R / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 7 miNiN g Eagle Plains farms out Fisher Project to Silver Standard by Ellsworth Dickson EAGLE PLAINS RESOuRCES LTD. [EPL-TSXV], which has over 35 mineral projects in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Yukon and Northwest Territories, recently farmed out up to an 80% inter- est in its Fisher gold project to Silver Standard Resources Inc. [SSO-TSX; SSRI-NASDAQ]. Located approximately 125 km east of La Ronge, Saskatchewan, the Fisher Project is located directly south of Silver Standard's existing Seabee/Santoy producing gold mining operations. Silver Standard can earn a 60% interest over four years by spending $4,000,000 on exploration, making an initial cash pay- ment of $100,000 plus annual cash payments of $75,000. Silver Standard will fund the $400,000 2016 exploration program con- ducted earlier this year by Eagle Plains which will be included in the $4,000,000 exploration expenditures. Once the 60% earn-in has been completed, Silver Standard has a 90-day, one-time option to earn an additional 20% interest (for a total of 80%) by paying $3,000,000 to Eagle Plains, at which time an 80/20 joint-venture will be formed. Eagle Plains will retain a 2.5% net smelter return royalty which may be reduced by 1% by paying $1,000,000. In addition, Eagle Plains will receive advance royalty payments of $100,000 annually from the joint venture until commencement of commercial production. Eagle Plains acquired the Fisher claims by staking the 34,000-hectare Fisher property which was expanded through three separate deals with third-party vendors. The Seabee gold operation has been in continuous production since 1991 and has produced 1.2 million ounces of gold from the Seabee and the Santoy deposits. Ore at Seabee/Santoy consists of structurally-controlled, high-grade veins associated with volca- nic and mafic intrusive rocks which may be traced southward from Seabee/Santoy property boundaries over 30 km within Eagle Plains' tenures. Of note, the Tabbernor Fault is a 1,500 km-long regional structure which is present in both existing Silver Standard and Eagle Plains tenures and continues northward as well as south- ward into North and South Dakota within the Homestake District. Rocks which hosted the 40 million-ounce Homestake gold deposit are similar in age and composition as those found at Seabee/Santoy and will form the focus for the Eagle Plains' exploration. The Homestake Mine, until it closed in 2002, was the largest and deep- est gold mine in North America. The Seabee/Santoy Mine Complex and Fisher Projects overlie the Pine Lake greenstone belt. Mineralization at Seabee/Santoy is affili- ated with the more westerly-oriented Laonil Lake shear zone which is a splay of the Tabbernor Fault. Field and underground observa- tions at Seabee indicate that high-grade gold zones were emplaced at fault intersections. Eagle Plains has other projects in the region. The Orchid and Chico projects are well-situated and straddle both the Tabbernor Fault and upper and lower sequences of the Pine Lake greenstone belt. Furthermore, several westerly-trending splay faults have been identified in the Fisher tenures, some of which are associated with known and under-evaluated gold occurrences. Eagle Plains' latest field work follows Phase 1 exploration per- formed earlier on the Fisher project, and a 4,000 line-km airborne geophysical survey began in late August. Work on the Chico and Orchid projects mark the first systematic exploration work carried out to date on the properties by Eagle Plains. Trenching and drilling activities at the Chico Project carried out by Corona Corp. and Cameco from 1988 to 1993 defined a mineral- ized strike length of over 1,400 metres. Corona's southern trench, known as the Royex showing, returned five chip samples greater than 1,000 ppb gold with a best (chip) sample of 14.3 g/t gold over 1 metre (AR 63M06-0034). Follow-up diamond drilling by Cameco near the Royex trench returned five significant intercepts rang- ing from 0.51 g/t over 1.5 metres to 36.0 g/t over 0.3 metres (AR 63M06-0041). The Orchid property region was explored at a reconnaissance level for base metals in the 1950s and 60s. Since the late 1980s, focus shifted to the gold potential related to the underlying Tabbernor fault system. Prospector, Wayne Fisher, made some gold- in-vein discoveries, returning assays of up to 2,720 ppb gold. In the 1990s, Placer Dome outlined several new gold and base metal showings, with quartz-tourmaline veins returning up to 12.8 g/t gold. Continued work by Homestake in 1992 further delineated the Orchid Zone with grab samples to 41.3 g/t gold (SMDI 2646), and Tim's showing with up to 19.2 g/t gold (SMDI 2645). n access to the Fisher gold project is easy via float plane. photo courtesy eagle plains resources Ltd.

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