VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Junior explorer Skeena Resources' acquisition of Mount Rainey Silver has closed, giving it access to mineral claims covering the past-producing, underground Prosperity–Porter Idaho–Silverado silver property, in north-west British Columbia’s ‘Golden Triangle’.

Mount Rainey Silver's primary asset is the Glacier Creek Claims, comprising 45 crown-granted claims covering about 660 ha, in the Glacier Creek/Albany Creek area on the east side of the Bear River Valley, as well as 12 municipal lots located in the township of Stewart.

“The Porter Idaho project is a significant high-grade occurrence to which we aim to add considerable tonnage by diamond drilling the underexplored area between the two mineralised vein systems,” Skeena president and CEO Walter Coles stated.

The Porter Idaho project has two known silver-bearing vein systems about 2 000 m apart on opposite sides of Mount Rainey with a surface portion of the intervening terrain masked by the icefield capping Mount Rainey.

The Porter Idaho project contains an historical indicated resource of 394 700 t grading 868 g/t silver, 3.37% lead and 1.41% zinc, for a contained 11-million silver ounces. It also has a historic inferred resource of 88 900 t grading 595 g/t silver, or a contained 1.7-million ounces.

It is located immediately south-east of Stewart at the head of the Portland canal, a port with year-round access, which contributes significantly to the intrinsic value of this exciting asset, the company said.

Skeena issued 25-million shares to former shareholders of Mount Rainey Silver, who now hold about 4.8% of Skeena.

Skeena is mainly focused on the evaluation and development of the Spectrum gold project and adjacent GJ copper/gold project, as well as exploration on the recently optioned past-producing Snip gold mine, which the company acquired from Barrick Gold.