Ascot targets August restart at Premier mill after funding

Ascot Resources (TSX: AOT) is targeting an August return to production for its Premier gold project in northwestern British Columbia following the completion of a C$61.1 million ($44m) financing to support the mine’s restart.

In an update provided Tuesday, the Vancouver-based miner said the funding would allow it to address the critical issue of power capacity by ordering a new transformer for the Premier Northern Lights (PNL) workings that would allow several pieces of equipment to operate simultaneously.

In addition, Ascot will be expanding the camp space at the Premier site by 100% to accommodate additional personnel as it moves towards mine restart.

Shares of Ascot Resources fell 5.3% by 11:00 a.m. ET after this update, giving the company a market capitalization of C$128 million ($92m).

Located 25 km from the town of Stewart, BC, the Premier gold project is home to what was once the largest gold mine in North America. Between 1918 and 1952, it produced a total of 2 million oz. from four deposits: Silver Coin, Big Missouri, Premier and Red Mountain.

Ascot acquired the project from Sweden’s Boliden in 2018 and successfully returned the historic site to production last April. However, mine operations were put on hold after just five months due to insufficient underground development. The company has since been looking to secure additional funds to complete the required work, initially targeting a reboot in the second quarter of 2025, but that timeline was rendered too soon.

Now with funding secured, Ascot intends to restart the Premier mill in early August at an initial rate of 1,250 tonnes per day (tpd), with feed sourced from both PNL and Big Missouri. This throughput would be achieved by running the 2,500-tpd mill on a two-week-on, two-week-off campaign basis.

Once the Silver Coin deposit is developed in the first half of 2026, Ascot management believes the mill can operate at its design rate of 2,500 tpd for seven days a week.

In addition, the company plans to undertake an exploration drilling program at the start of June to test a number of prospective sites close to the Premier mill, followed by testing of other targets at higher elevations.