Premier Gold Project

The Premier Gold Project (“PGP”) is located 25 kilometres from the town of Stewart, British Columbia and Hyder, Alaska in the prolific Golden Triangle. Stewart is situated at the end of the Portland Canal across the border from Alaska and has excellent infrastructure, including a paved highway to major transportation routes, a deep-water port (ice free in the winter), a concentrate load facility and extensive hydro power facilities for supporting mining and mineral exploration activities.

PGP comprises a land position of 8,133 hectares with three key deposits and a number of exploration targets. The key deposits are Premier, Silver Coin and Big Missouri, which all had historical mining activities and underground access. In addition, to the north are two smaller resource areas known as Martha Ellen and Dilworth. The PGP combined resources are as follows:

2020 Mineral Resource Estimate at Premier Gold Project

In August of 2019, the Company engaged Ms. Sue Bird, P.Eng. of Bird Resource Consulting Corp. (“BRCC”), an independent “qualified person” (as defined in NI 43-101) to prepare an updated Mineral Resource estimate for the Premier Gold Project. The new estimate incorporates the drill results from the 2019 field season and required an update to the modeled mineralized zones and the modelling methodology for Premier, Big Missouri and Silver Coin to accommodate the results from the new drill holes in these three areas.

Mineral Resources at PGP reported at a 3.5g/t AuEq cut-off (effective date of December 12, 2019).

Notes for above:

1. Mineral Resources are estimated at a cut-off grade of 3.5 g/t AuEq based on metal prices of US$1,300/oz Au and US$20/oz Ag.
2. The AuEq values were calculated using US$1,300/oz Au, US$20/oz Ag, a silver metallurgical recovery of 45.2%, and the following equation: AuEq(g/t) = Au(g/t) + 45.2% x Ag(g/t) x 20 / 1,300
3. A mean bulk density of 2.84 t/m3 is used for Premier and of 2.80 t/m3 for all other deposit areas
4. A minimum mining width of 2.5 m true thickness is required in order to be classified as Resource material 
5. Numbers may not add due to rounding.

The Company has also identified a number of exploration targets outside of the main deposits which can summarized into the following key areas ( see the map below) : Silver Hill, to the northeast of the property targeting high grade silver; Dilworth - Big Missouri ridge to the western side of the property and the eastern ridge to the east of the cascade creek fault targeting high grade epithermal gold.

To date there has been in excess of 840,000m of drilling in over 7,500 holes (over 500,000m in 2,280 holes drilled by Ascot) on the property mostly focused on the key deposits. PGP was acquired by the Company in a series of acquisitions and “earn in” agreements primarily from Boliden, private owners and Jayden Resources limited. The property is now wholly owned by Ascot. Boliden and the former owners of the Dilworth property will have net smelter royalties (“NSR”) of 1% and 5% respectively. Ascot will have the right to buy out the 5% NSR for C$13.7 million and a portion of the 1% NSR royalties for C$1 million.

The PGP property can be accessed by two gravel roads: The Granduc road and the Big Missouri haul road. Key infrastructure on site are the mill and assay buildings, the tailings dam facility, the Premier, Silver Coin and Big Missouri underground mine infrastructure, the Regional Power hydro dam, penstock and power plant, the BC Hydro power lines from Stewart and the water treatment plant, along with the associated water treatment ponds. Due to its location to the nearby town of Stewart, this project does not require a remote campsite for employees. A view looking to the south and north near the mill is shown below.

Since 2017 Ascot management has focused on developing a critical amount of high-grade underground resources. Through exploration and cnsolidation, Ascot has amassed a critical mass of approximately 3 Moz gold across all deposits, with wich to proceed to development. In April 2020 Ascot released the robust results of a feasibility study outlining a high-return project with a base case after-tax NPV_5% of $341M and IRR of 51%, and after-tax payback period of 1.8 years. The study outlined an 8-year mine life producing an annual average of 151 koz AuEq at AISC of US$769/oz gold.

PGP has historical Mines Act and Environmental Management Act (Water Discharge) permits and is in the process of applying for an amendment for these permits with respect to a new mining plan and refurbished operation. The process requires significant consultation with First Nations and government regulators.

In addition to the development of the key deposits, management is progressing a number of the exploration targets, which can significantly add to the resource base and the Company plans to continue drilling to expand its resource base and create value through new discoveries.

The Premier underground mine opened in 1918 and was the largest gold mine in North America until its closure in 1952 producing 2 million ounces of gold and 45 million ounces of silver.

In 1938, Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company, (later known as “Cominco”) opened the Big Missouri mine, located 4 miles north of the Premier mine. The mine operated until 1941, when wartime economic pressure caused the mine to shut down.

In 1981 Westmin Resources owned the property, and after undertaking a drill program started operations on the old Silback - Premier property in 1989. A mill was built and open pit mining and an underground mining operation began in March of 1989. Westmin entered into a joint venture with Tenejon in 1991 and began its underground operation at Premier once again, until April 1996. The mill could process up to 2,850 tons per day. The process flowsheet incorporated a carbon in leach (CIL) circuit for gold and silver extraction, followed by zinc cementation of the precious metals and smelting of a doré product. Reported recoveries were 91% for gold and 45% for silver. The Premier open pit mine operated until 1996 producing approximately 260,000 ounces of gold and 5.1 million ounces of silver.  Boliden Ltd purchased the mine from Westmin in 1998 and the mine was declared closed in 2001. Boliden completed the waste dump reclamation, constructed the tailings dam spill way, installed the water treatment plant and water monitoring facilities.