Seabridge Gold Surges On New Drill Program - Analyst Blog

Seabridge Gold Inc. SA jumped 8.95% at the close of trading yesterday following the announcement that it has begun exploration drilling at its KSM project in British Columbia. The gain was among the 10 biggest percentage increases on the New York Stock Exchange.

The main purpose of the program is to expand the 515 million ton inferred resource averaging 0.53% copper and 0.36 g/ton gold found last year at Deep Kerr. The KSM Project is a mining district with numerous deposits and containing one of the largest undeveloped gold and copper reserves in the world.

Deep Kerr confirmed the existence of higher grade core-zone-style mineralization at KSM. Deep Kerr also validated the presence of deep core zones, the mineralogical character of which are associated with considerably higher metal content, beneath the porphyry deposits of the KSM project.

The exploration program at KSM is being conducted by Seabridge under the supervision of William E. Threlkel. An ongoing and rigorous quality control/quality assurance protocol will be engaged during the 2014 program including blank and reference standards in every batch of assays.

With the addition of Deep Kerr, Seabridge Gold believes that KSM is a top-tier copper project with grades that are comparable with the world's largest and most profitable operating copper-gold mines. The deposit remains open to the north and at depth, with the best results encountered at the end of the 2013 program towards the north end.

One of the priorities for Seabridge for 2014 is to determine the northern extension of the deposit with step-outs that could extend the strike of Deep Kerr by several hundred meters. The deposit is trending into the Sulphurets valley which may bring it closer to the surface and expedite drilling.

The company also wants to test various other identified and extremely prospective core zone targets which have the potential for large, high grade deposits similar to Deep Kerr, including the Iron Cap deposit at depth. The company believes that Iron Cap is well located for a second core zone discovery; it is the closest deposit to Deep Kerr and mine plans already assume that it will be exploited from underground using block cave methods.

Seabridge Gold's resource base of gold, copper and silver is one of the world's largest. Its main projects are located in Canada and its aim is to increase resource and reserve ownership per share.

Seabridge currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the mining sector include Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. AEM, Alamos Gold Inc. AGI and DRDGOLD Ltd. DRD While Agnico Eagle carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), both Alamos Gold and DRDGOLD hold a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).