The Valley gold deposit is located within Snowline Gold’s 100%-owned Rogue Project in Yukon Territory, Canada.
The company has been advancing the Valley deposit since 2021. Exploration efforts continue at the open Valley deposit, which is characterised as a reduced intrusion-related gold system (RIRGS).
In June 2025, Snowline announced results of a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) on Valley gold deposit.
According to the PEA, the gold project can produce 6.8 million ounces of gold (Au) over 20 years. Initial capital expenditure is estimated to be C$1.7bn ($1.24bn) including contingencies.
Following the PEA, Snowline will continue with the fieldwork and engineering studies to support future technical analyses.
These activities along with regional exploration and drilling campaigns are planned to target additional district-scale discoveries. The Rogue Project area is expected to contain multiple intrusions similar to Valley.
Location
The Rogue Project lies in east-central Yukon, Canada. According to a technical report published in 2024, the project includes an area of 112,483.8 hectares.
It covers multiple exploration targets throughout the Rogue Range of the Hess Mountains located within the Traditional Territory of the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun.
Geology and Mineralisation
The Rogue Project is situated within the Tombstone Gold Belt (TGB) in the Tintina Gold Province, which stretches approximately 2,000km from southeast Yukon to southeast Alaska. The Tintina Gold Province is known for its fertile mid-Cretaceous intrusions that host reduced intrusion-related gold systems (RIRGS).
The project lies within the Selwyn Basin, predominantly underlain by Neoproterozoic to Silurian clastic sedimentary rocks, as well as Devonian to Mississippian Earn Group’s clastic sedimentary rocks and chert.
The Valley stock, hosting the Valley Deposit, was first mapped in 1968. It comprises three phases distinguished by grain size and texture.
Gold mineralisation at the Valley Deposit is linked to quartz veins containing gangue and mineralisation typical of Tombstone Gold Belt’s (TGB’s) RIRGS. The veins primarily appear as irregular to planar sheeted arrays, but also as multi-directional veins, typically 0.5-1 cm thick, sometimes up to 10cm, with vein densities ranging from a few veins per metre to up to 30 veins per metre.
Additionally, other mineralisation styles, such as skarns and orogenic Au veins, have been identified within the project.
Valley Deposit Mineral Resource Estimate
Valley gold deposit includes Measured Mineral Resources of 69.7 million tonnes (Mt) at 1.41 grams per tonne gold (g/t Au) for 3.15 million ounces (Moz) gold.
Indicated Mineral Resources total 134.3Mt at 1.11 g/t Au for an additional 4.79Moz gold. The deposit also includes Inferred Mineral Resources of 44.5Mt at 0.62 g/t Au for 0.89 Moz gold (Table 1) using a 0.3 g/t Au cut-off grade.
The estimate is based on 52,736m drill data procured from all 123 holes drilled at the property.
Mining at Valley Deposit
Mining at the property will involve utilising conventional open pit truck-and-shovel methods, with a mill processing capacity of 9 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) over a projected 20-year life of mine (LOM).
Pit optimisation selected a pit shell containing approximately 171 million tonnes of mill feed at a grade of 1.34 grams per tonne (g/t) Au and 186 million tonnes of waste, resulting in a strip ratio of 1.09:1.
The mine schedule is designed to prioritise higher-grade feed in the initial years to support strong early cash flow.
A mining bench height of 10m was selected to balance dilution control with equipment productivity. Haulage infrastructure includes dual-lane ramps and single-lane access for the final benches.
Waste rock is predominantly stored in the adjacent valley at the Waste Rock Storage Facility (WSF), with some used for infrastructure construction.
Drill-and-blast operations are necessary for both waste and mill feed, while overburden is expected to be free-dig. The mine fleet will include 24m³ shovels, 139-tonne trucks, and related support equipment to meet the total material movement requirements.
The PEA outlines a 25,000 tonne-per-day processing facility utilising a standard metallurgical flowsheet. This includes grinding, gravity separation, and carbon-in-leach (CIL) followed by cyanide (CN) detoxification to produce gold doré.
The project will not use heap leaching. Metallurgical testing indicates clean, non-refractory gold mineralisation, with an average gold recovery estimated at 92.2% for the PEA.
Project Infrastructure
The PEA envisions year-round road access to the Valley gold deposit site. Key development components will include a bridge over the Pelly River, upgrades to the existing North Canol Road maintained by the government, and the construction of a 130km new road connecting the North Canol Road to the site.
The site layout includes a process plant, fuel and power infrastructure, a water and tailings storage facility, camp accommodations, an airfield, waste storage facilities, and administrative buildings.
For the PEA, all power generation is assumed to occur on-site using diesel generators. The installed capacity is planned at 60MW to meet a total demand of 36MW, with five units of 12MW each. There is potential for integrating waste heat recovery systems.
A water management system is planned that will separate contact water from non-contact water. Non-contact water will be redirected away from site infrastructure via diversion channels. Contact water, primarily from the pit and WSF, will be collected in a central pond and treated as needed before discharge.
Water from the TSF will be recycled for processing, with surplus water treated as required before discharge.
Contractors Involved
SRK Consulting (Canada) served as lead consultant, along with additional independent contractors, to prepare the Valley gold deposit PEA.
Ausenco Engineering Canada was hired to compile a mineral resource estimate (MRE) of the Rogue Project.
Other contractors such as Archer, Cathro & Associates (1981) completed the work related to property description, accessibility and climate among others.
Haggarty Technical Services managed and summarized the studies and work completed on Rogue Project.
D Redmond Consulting completed the MRE on the Valley Deposit.
