Banyan Gold's high-grade Powerline hits land in 'waste' rock — a preview of the next AurMac resource
CEO Tara Christie says new Powerline intercepts — over 5.5 g/t gold across nearly 22 meters — hit a projected high-grade zone inside AurMac's conceptual pit that the current resource counts as waste. The holes arrive too late for this year's PEA but anchor the next resource update, while a 7,500-meter regional program begins at Nitra.
Investor angle
The lens here is sequencing: the PEA, due in the second half of 2026, is a fixed snapshot of drilling through 2025, while everything Christie is excited about — the new southwest Powerline zone, the 70,000-meter program, and Nitra — lands in the next resource and the next study. That sets up a two-track story: near-term validation of high-grade starter-pit economics, then a longer runway of resource growth from ground the current model counts as waste. Four things to watch: (1) PEA economics and whether they lean on the over-4.5-million-ounce, 1.4 g/t high-grade core she cites at a 0.9 g/t cut-off; (2) follow-up drilling that establishes continuity of the new Powerline zone and infills it toward inferred status; (3) Nitra assay batches judged against her stated threshold of roughly half a million ounces at a gram-plus for a starter pit; (4) the release cadence — batches of about eight holes, drilling through November or December. Her per-ounce valuation framing (about $50 US per ounce versus peers) is a management claim to test against the PEA, not an independent measure.
Banyan Gold's newest high-grade drill results at the Powerline deposit landed in rock the company's own mineral resource currently counts as waste. In a conversation with The KE Report, president and CEO Tara Christie argued that is exactly why the intercepts matter: they suggest the AurMac project holds more high-grade gold than the current model captures, and that the edges of its two main deposits have not been found yet.
## A high-grade hit where the model says "waste"
The June 17 news release reported an intercept of more than 5.5 g/t gold (grams of gold per tonne of rock) over almost 22 meters, including 13 g/t gold over 9.2 meters. The hole sits southwest of Powerline's main high-grade core, inside the outline of the conceptual pit — the open-pit shell used in resource studies to separate potentially economic rock from waste.
Christie traced the zone back to the end of the 2025 drill season, when Banyan drilled 300-meter step-outs (holes well beyond known mineralization) southwest of Powerline, originally to test ground for a waste dump. Those holes returned roughly 1.5 g/t over wide widths. Because roughly 100-meter drill spacing is required for material to qualify as an inferred resource (the lowest-confidence resource category), that ground was excluded from the mineral resource and is treated as waste.
The 2026 follow-up then hit the high-grade zone the company's geological model projected. Christie said the discovery could add ounces and lift grade inside the current pit, "might be a whole new zone," and probably continues below the conceptual pit — so a re-optimized pit could follow it deeper. In her words, the result shows "we haven't found the edges of Powerline or Airstrip yet," leaving room for more discovery at AurMac itself.
## Too late for this PEA, positioned for the next
One timing detail matters for anyone following the story: these 2026 holes will not be in the upcoming Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA — an early-stage study of whether a project can be mined profitably). The PEA is built on the mineral resource in the technical report Banyan filed on June 26, which includes drilling only through the end of 2025. Christie noted the independent qualified person needs several weeks to process the data, and the PEA itself requires lengthy iteration.
She expects the new zone to be significant for the next mineral resource update and the next study instead. Continuity is unproven — defining the zone is part of the current program — and she said high-grade zones at Airstrip and Powerline generally trend east-west, an assumption the team is using to chase this one. The refined geological model she credits with predicting high-grade zones is guiding that targeting.
## How much high grade exists today
For scale, Christie pointed to company presentation charts showing the resource at different cut-off grades (the minimum grade at which material is counted as resource). At roughly a 0.9 g/t cut-off, she cited more than 4.5 million ounces at 1.4 g/t across indicated (higher-confidence) and inferred categories. She compared that to a peer project she referred to as Talamore, formerly a Forte project, with 2.8 million ounces at 1.4 grams — the basis of its mine plan.
Christie framed Banyan's challenge as proving in the PEA that the economics work on high-grade starter pits — smaller, higher-grade pits mined early in a mine's life. She identified two zones already inside the pit, one at Airstrip and one in northern Powerline, as the probable starters.
## Nitra: the search for another starter pit
The interview also covered the June 15 news that diamond drilling has begun at the Nitra project, with a minimum of 7,500 meters allocated across 10 targets built from soil sampling, structural analysis, geophysics, and the presence of historic and active placer mining (gold recovered from stream gravels) in the area.
Christie argued the regional program extends AurMac's logic rather than distracting from it: a higher-grade area becomes another starter pit. She put the potential of the regional targets at roughly half a million ounces at a gram-plus — enough, in her view, to be a meaningful addition. The land package exceeds 750 square kilometers and grew by almost 450 square kilometers through a recent acquisition, including ground adjacent to Sitka's very high-grade zone. She noted deposits of this type occur in belts, pointing to Banyan, Sitka, and Victoria Gold's properties as likely related intrusions, and said the same alluvial mining in the Clear Creek basin supports the case for a true district. For large mining companies — which she said want to feed a mill for 20 to 40 years — satellite deposits that extend mill life are what turn a single large deposit into a long-term jurisdiction investment.
Practically, first Nitra holes are planned to about 300-400 meters total depth. Because this mineralization style shows visible features — sheeted veins and skarn-like mineralization characteristic of Airstrip — geologists quick-log every hole nightly and decide on the spot whether to deepen it or move on. Christie called that flexibility an advantage over programs where the geology is less visible in core.
## Program scale and what to watch
Banyan is 30,000 meters into a 70,000-meter season target, had six drills running at the peak, and has two dedicated to Nitra regional targets, with more than 100 holes already drilled. Christie said results will be released in batches of roughly eight holes or more, with drilling continuing through November or December, and year-round drilling possible at AurMac thanks to roads, power, and cell service. She also flagged deeper holes at AurMac, recalling one that ended 350 meters vertically in 15.5 g/t material.
The technical report underpinning the PEA shows 3.7 million ounces in the indicated category. Christie's main takeaway was the refined lithological model — mapping which rock units host the gold, now with more subdomains — which she said lets the team predict high-grade zones and adds credibility to a large bulk-tonnage (big, low-grade open-pit style) deposit.
On valuation, Christie argued Banyan remains undervalued at about $50 per ounce (US) versus peers, with the PEA as the major second-half catalyst. Those economics and that potential are management's claims; the PEA will be their first formal test.
Generated by Pixys from the source video below. Not investment advice.
