Kodiak Copper Corp. press release

Banyan Announces 4 Million Ounce Gold Mineral Resource Estimate for the Aurmac Property, Yukon, Canada

2022-05-17

TSXV - TSX Venture Exchange · Copper · Gold · Silver · Molybdenum · Lead · Zinc · Diamond · Canada · Resource Estimate

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 17, 2022 /Banyan Gold Corp. (the "Company" or "Banyan") (TSXV:BYN)(OTCQB:BYAGF) is pleased to announce an updated mineral resource estimate (the "Resource Estimate") prepared for the Company's AurMacProperty ‎located in the Mayo Mining ‎district, approximately 56 kilometres (‘kms") northeast from Mayo, Yukon and 356 ‎kms north of Whitehorse, Yukon (the "AurMac Property"). ‎

The updated Resource Estimate comprises a total inferred mineral resource of 3,990,000‎ounces of gold (Table 1) on the road accessible AurMac Property.

This pit constrained mineral resource is contained in three near/on-surface deposits: the Airstrip, Powerline and Aurex Hill deposits. The Resource Estimate is summarized below in Table 1 and shown on Figure 1.

_"This Resource Estimate demonstrates the value generated by Banyan with 40,000 metres of drilling adding over 3 million ounces of inferred mineral resources. All three deposits are open, with mineralization known to extend beyond the current block model boundaries." _stated Tara Christie, President and CEO. "Examining the Airstrip and Powerline Mineral Resource model highlights their robust nature; when the cut-off grades are increased by 50%, to 0.3g/t, just 10% of the ounces are reduced; while the grade increases by 20% to an average of 0.72 g/t. We are confident the 30,000 metres that the Company plans to drill in 2022 will meaningfully continue to build upon this Resource Estimate."

Table 1: Pit-Constrained Inferred Mineral Resources - AurMac Property

| Deposit | Au Cut-Off

g/t | Tonnage

M Tonnes | Average Au Grade

g/t | Au Content

k oz. | | Airstrip | 0.2 | 42.5 | 0.64 | 874 | | Powerline | 0.2 | 152.0 | 0.59 | 2,898 | | Aurex Hill | 0.3 | 12.5 | 0.53 | 215 | | Total Combined | 0.2 - 0.3 | 207.0 | 0.60 | 3,990 |

Notes to Table 1: ‎

1. The effective date for the Resource Estimate is May 13, 2022. 2. Mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The Resource Estimate may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, sociopolitical, marketing,changes in global gold markets or other relevant issues. 3. The definitions of inferred mineral resources that are contained in the Definition Standards of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum ("CIM Definition ‎Standards"), which are incorporated by reference into National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") were followed to classify the mineral resources in the Resource Estimate. The quantity and grade of reported inferred mineral resources in this estimation are uncertain in nature ‎and there has been insufficient exploration to define these inferred mineral resources as an ‎indicated mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading them to an ‎indicated or measured mineral resource category. 4. Mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.2 g/t Au for the Airstrip and Powerline deposits and 0.3 g/t Au for the Aurex Hill deposits, using a US$/CAN$ exchange rate of 0.75 and constrained within an open-pit shell optimized with the Lerchs-Grossman algorithm to constrain the Mineral Resources with the following estimated parameters: gold price of US$1,700/ounce, US$2.50/t mining cost, US$5.50/t processing cost, US$2.00/t G+A, 80% heap leach recoveries, and 45° pit slope. The gold price and cost assumptions are consistent with current pricing assumptions and costs, and in particular are consistent with those employed for recent technical reports for similar pit-constrained Yukon gold projects. 5. The number of tonnes was rounded to the nearest hundred thousand. The number of ounces was rounded to the nearest thousand and final result to three significant figures. Any discrepancies in the totals are due to rounding effects.

Figure 1: Plan map showing the Resource Estimate extents, drill collar locations and extent of interpreted mineralization.

The updated Resource Estimate for the AurMac Property was prepared by Marc Jutras, P.Eng., M.A.Sc., Principal, Ginto Consulting Inc., an independent Qualified Person in accordance with the requirements of NI 43-101. Mr. Jutras is preparing a technical report supporting the Resource Estimate (the "Technical Report") in accordance with the requirements of NI 43-101, which will be filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com within forty-five (45) ‎days of the date of this release.‎

Detailed images of the Mineral Resource model, including an interactive 3D model, a video on this News Release and additional information can be found at: https://www.banyangold.com/projects/aurex-mcquesten/

About the AurMac Property

The AurMac Propertyis comprised of the Aurex and McQuesten properties, as well as claims staked and owned 100% by Banyan. Banyan currently owns fifty-one (51%) percent of the Aurex and McQuesten properties and has the right to earn up to a 100% interest in the properties from Victoria Gold Corp. (TSX: VGCX)‎‎("Victoria Gold")under option agreements (the "Option ‎Agreements") for cash or share payments to be completed by 2027 and delivery of a Preliminary Economic Assessment by December 2025. Upon earning a 100% interest in the Aurex and McQuesten properties, the Company will grant to Victoria Gold a 6 % royalty on gold, which can be bought down to 1% for $7 Million dollars per property.See news releases of the Company dated May 3, 2022, December 13, 2019, July 9, 2019 and May 25, ‎‎2017 for further details regarding the Aurex Option Agreement and McQuesten Option Agreement. ‎The AurMac Property was formerly referred to as the Aurex-McQuesten property in previous Company disclosure.

The 173 sq km AurMac Property lies 40 km from Victoria Gold's Eagle Project, an open-pit heap leach mine, and adjacent to the Keno Hill Silver District operated by Alexco Resource Corporation ("Alexco"). The property is located adjacent to the main Yukon highway and just off the main access road to Victoria Gold. The AurMac Property benefits from a 3-phase powerline, existing Yukon Energy Corp. switching power station and cellular phone communications.

The Airstrip, Powerline and Aurex Hill deposits contained within the AurMac Property are all on‑surface and near-surface deposits and potentially open-pit mineable, with expected low strip ratios.

Airstrip Deposit

The Airstrip deposit is delineated by 131 drill holes, representing an increase of 29 drill holes from the initial mineral resource estimate published on May 25, 2020. Topographic control was from a detailed LiDAR survey dataset.

There are several geologic controls on gold mineralization as per the current geologic understanding of the Airstrip deposit. The Airstrip lithological model is made of eight units mainly oriented east-west, with six of the units dipping at approximately 40° to the south. The bulk of the Inferred Mineral Resources are hosted within the calcareous package, a roughly 90-metre-thick zone that strikes east west and dips approximately 40° to the south.

The most common sampling length of the Airstrip deposit (approximately 45% of the sample data) is 1.5 m; and composites were constructed at this interval. Capping of high-grade outliers was based on lithological domains and varied from 2.0 g/t Au to 9.0 g/t Au.

The estimation of gold grades into a block model was carried out with the Ordinary Kriging technique on capped composites and the resultant block model contains a block size of 5m (easting) x 5m (northing) x 5 m (elevation), sub-blocked to 1m (easting) x 1m (northing) x 1m (elevation). Density was calculated from a total of 418 measurements from the drill core. The average density per lithology type was assigned to the corresponding blocks.

At a 0.20 g/t Au cut-off, the pit-constrained, inferred mineral resources are 42.5 million tonnes at an average gold grade of 0.64 g/t for a total of 874,000 ounces of gold. Cut-off grade sensitivities for the Airstrip deposit are presented in Table 2.

Table 2: Pit-Constrained Inferred Mineral Resources - Airstrip Deposit

| Au Cut-Off

g/t | Tonnage

Tonnes | Average Au Grade

g/t | Au Content

oz. | | 0.10 | 59,592,838 | 0.498 | 954,145 | | 0.15 | 49,991,955 | 0.570 | 916,149 | | 0.20 | 42,487,141 | 0.640 | 874,236 | | 0.25 | 36,280,732 | 0.711 | 829,348 | | 0.30 | 31,037,194 | 0.785 | 783,327 | | 0.35 | 26,800,362 | 0.858 | 739,297 | | 0.40 | 23,305,113 | 0.931 | 697,577 | | 0.45 | 20,469,558 | 1.001 | 658,770 | | 0.50 | 17,928,276 | 1.075 | 619,638 |

Notes to Table 2:

1. The effective date for the Resource Estimate is May 13, 2022. 2. Mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The Resource Estimate may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, sociopolitical, marketing,changes in global gold markets or other relevant issues. 3. The CIM Definition Standards were followed for the classification of inferred mineral resources in the Resource Estimate. The quantity and grade of reported inferred mineral resources in this estimation are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define these inferred mineral resources as an indicated mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading them to an indicated or measured mineral resource category. 4. Mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.2 g/t Au, using a US$/CAN$ exchange rate of 0.75 and constrained within an open-pit shell optimized with the Lerchs-Grossman algorithm to constrain the mineral resources with the following estimated parameters: gold price of US$1,700/ounce, US$2.50/t mining cost, US$5.50/t processing cost, US$2.00/t G+A, 80% heap leach recoveries, and 45° pit slope.

Powerline Deposit

The drill data for the Powerline deposit is comprised of 166 drill holes, representing an increase of 151 drill holes from the previously disclosed mineral resource estimate of May 25, 2020. The drill hole database has a cut-off date of April 25, 2022.

There are several geologic controls on gold mineralization as per the current geologic understanding of the Powerline deposit. The Powerline mineralization model is made of 7 parallel and slightly undulating mineralized zones. These zones are trending east-west with a slight plunge of 5° to the west and dip of 10° to the north. The bulk of the Inferred Mineral Resources are hosted withinquartz veins dipping to 15 degrees toward 335 degrees.

The most common sampling length of the Powerline deposit (approximately 60% of the sample data) is 1.5 m. The 1.5 m length was selected as the composite length and is based on the most common sampling length as well as on the envisioned block height of 5m. Capping of high-grade outliers was carried out for each mineralized zone and ranged from 4.0 g/t Au to 12.0 g/t Au.

The estimation of gold grades into a block model was carried out with the Ordinary Kriging technique on capped composites with the resultant block model containing a block size of 5 m (easting) x 5 m (northing) x 5 m (elevation), sub-blocked to 1 m (easting) x 1 m (northing) x 1 m (elevation).

At a 0.20 g/t Au cut-off, the pit-constrained, inferred mineral resources are 152 million tonnes at an average gold grade of 0.59 g/t for a total of 2,898,000 ounces of gold. Cut-off grade sensitivities for the Powerline deposit are presented in Table 3.

Table 3. Pit-Constrained Inferred Mineral Resources - Powerline Deposit

| Au Cut-Off

g/t | Tonnage

tonnes | Average Au Grade

g/t | Au Content

oz. | | 0.10 | 190,905,921 | 0.503 | 3,087,297 | | 0.15 | 172,955,984 | 0.542 | 3,013,879 | | 0.20 | 151,984,708 | 0.593 | 2,897,648 | | 0.25 | 133,368,315 | 0.644 | 2,761,401 | | 0.30 | 114,974,053 | 0.704 | 2,602,337 | | 0.35 | 99,180,749 | 0.764 | 2,436,193 | | 0.40 | 85,881,004 | 0.825 | 2,277,939 | | 0.45 | 73,227,267 | 0.894 | 2,104,754 | | 0.50 | 62,852,644 | 0.963 | 1,945,991 |

Notes to Table 3:

1. The effective date for the Resource Estimate is May 13, 2022. 2. Mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The Resource Estimate may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, sociopolitical, marketing, changes in global gold markets or other relevant issues. 3. The CIM Definition Standards were followed for the classification of inferred mineral resources in the Resource Estimate. The quantity and grade of reported inferred mineral resources in this estimation are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define these inferred mineral resources as an indicated mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading them to an indicated or measured mineral resource category. 4. Mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.2 g/t Au, using a US$/CAN$ exchange rate of 0.75 and constrained within an open-pit shell optimized with the Lerchs-Grossman algorithm to constrain the mineral resources with the following estimated parameters: gold price of US$1,700/ounce, US$2.50/t mining cost, US$5.50/t processing cost, US$2.00/t G+A, 80% heap leach recoveries, and 45° pit slope.

Aurex Hill Deposit

The Technical Report includes Banyan's initial mineral resource estimate of the Aurex Hill deposit. The drill hole database is comprised of 241 drill holes, of which 26 holes were drilled by Banyan since 2017.

There are several geologic controls on gold mineralization as per the current geologic understanding of the Aurex Hill deposit. The Aurex Hill mineralization model is made of three (3) parallel and slightly undulating mineralized zones. These zones are trending east-west with a slight plunge of 5° to the west and dip of 20° to the north. The bulk of the Inferred Mineral Resources are hosted withinquartz veins dipping to 15 degrees toward 333 degrees.

The most common sampling length of the Aurex Hill deposit (more than 40% of the sample data) is 1.5 m. The 1.5 m length was selected as the composite length and is based on the most common sampling length as well as on the block height of 5m. Capping of high-grade outliers was carried out for each mineralized zone and ranged from 2.5 g/t Au to 4.0 g/t Au.

The estimation of gold grades into a block model was carried out with the Ordinary Kriging technique on capped composites with the resultant block model containing a block size of 5m (easting) x 5m (northing) x 5m (elevation), sub-blocked to 1m (easting) x 1m (northing) x 1m (elevation).

At a 0.30 g/t Au cut-off, the pit-constrained, inferred mineral resources are 12.5 million tonnes at an average gold grade of 0.53 g/t for a total of 215,000 ounces of gold. Cut-off grade sensitivities for the Aurex Hill deposit are presented in Table 4.

Table 4. Pit-Constrained Inferred Mineral Resources - Aurex Hill Deposit

| Au Cut-Off

g/t | Tonnage

tonnes | Average Au Grade

g/t | Au Content

oz. | | 0.10 | 27,696,634 | 0.347 | 308,992 | | 0.15 | 23,512,105 | 0.386 | 291,790 | | 0.20 | 19,285,599 | 0.433 | 268,480 | | 0.25 | 15,699,949 | 0.480 | 242,287 | | 0.30 | 12,545,811 | 0.532 | 214,586 | | 0.35 | 9,597,353 | 0.596 | 183,903 | | 0.40 | 7,879,445 | 0.644 | 163,145 | | 0.45 | 6,595,134 | 0.688 | 145,882 | | 0.50 | 5,266,781 | 0.741 | 125,474 |

Notes to Table 4:

1. The effective date for the Resource Estimate is May 13, 2022. 2. Mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The Resource Estimate may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, sociopolitical, marketing, changes in global gold markets or other relevant issues. 3. The CIM Definition Standards were followed for the classification of inferred mineral resources. The quantity and grade of reported inferred mineral resources in this estimation are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define these inferred mineral resources as an indicated mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading them to an indicated or measured Mineral Resource category. 4. Mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.3 g/t Au, using a US$/CAN$ exchange rate of 0.75 and constrained within an open-pit shell optimized with the Lerchs-Grossman algorithm to constrain the mineral resources with the following estimated parameters: gold price of US$1,700/ounce, US$2.50/t mining cost, US$5.50/t processing cost, US$2.00/t G+A, 80% heap leach recoveries, and 45° pit slope.

Quality Assurance, Quality Control Measures and Data Verification

The reported work was completed using industry standard procedures, including a quality assurance/quality control ("QA/QC") program consisting of the insertion of certified standards and blanks into the sample stream and utilizing certified independent analytical laboratories for all assays. Additionally, historic QA/QC data and methodology on the AurMac Property were reviewed and will be summarized in the NI 43-101 Technical Report‎. The qualified persons detected no significant QA/QC issues during review of the data.

A robust system of standards, ¼ core duplicates and analytical blanks, was implemented in all Banyan drilling programs and was monitored as chemical assay data became available. All control samples were within accuracy and precision thresholds required to meet data quality standards. These control samples amounted to approximately 10% of the samples submitted to analytical laboratories.

All geological data in the Resource Estimate was verified by Ginto Consulting Inc. ("Ginto"), to the extent possible, as accurate and all geological information was reviewed and confirmed. Ginto made site visits to the AurMac Property in 2018, 2019 and August 2021, and observed Banyan's drilling and sampling techniques, as well as viewed drill core from the AurMac Property. Ginto confirms that the assay sampling and QA/QC sampling of core by Banyan provides adequate and good verification of the data and believes the work to have been done within the guidelines of NI 43-101. Additional discussion on the AurMac Mineral Resource Model Data Verification will be included in the forthcoming Technical Report.

Analytical Method

All drill core and RC splits collected from the 2020 drill program including drill core from 16 drill holes from the 2021 drill program were analyzed at Bureau Veritas Minerals of Vancouver, B.C. utilizing the aqua regia digestion ICP-MS 36-element AQ200 analytical package with FA450 50-gram Fire Assay with AAS finish for gold on all samples. Drill core from 123 drill holes from 2021 were analyzed at SGS Canada in Vancouver, B.C. utilizing the aqua regia digestion ISP-MS 36-element GE_IMS21B20 analytical package with GE_FAA30V5 30-gram Fire Assay with AAS finish for gold on all samples.

All core samples were split on-site at Banyan's core processing facilities. Once split, half samples were placed back in the core boxes with the other half of split samples sealed in poly bags with one part of a three-part sample tag inserted within. All RC samples were split in the field with a 3-tier riffle splitter with 87.5% of the sample being stored in a reject poly bag and 12.5% of the sample in a submittal poly bag. Once split, both poly bags were sealed with one part of a three-part sample tag inserted within. Samples were delivered by Banyan personnel or a dedicated expediter to a Whitehorse preparatory laboratory where samples are prepared and then shipped to an Analytical laboratory in Vancouver, B.C. for pulverization and final chemical analysis. A more robust description of historic analytical procedures will be included in the forthcoming Technical Report.

Risk Factors

Banyan is unaware of any legal, political, environmental or other risks that could materially affect ‎the potential development of the Resource Estimate.‎

2022 Exploration Update

Banyan initiated its 2022 exploration program on January 26, 2022, and currently has three drills operating on the AurMac Property. Eighty (80) drill holes and over 17,000 m of drilling has been completed to date which together have expanded the mineralization around the Powerline Zone by over 600 m to the east and 1,000 m west from 2021 drilling. The 2022 program will include approximately 80% of exploration drilling focused on expansion of the mineralization at Powerline and testing the interpreted mineralization connecting with the Aurex Hill zone; and a commiserate ~20% targeting high priority regional targets on the AurMac Property and small portion on Banyan's 100% owned Nitra property (the "Nitra Property"), located approximately west of the AurMac Property in the Mayo Mining District. Additional information on the Nitra Property can be found in Company news release November 9, 2021 and on the Company website.