Silver Elephant hits indium, gallium at Bolivian silver project
Silver Elephant Mining Corp. [ELEF-TSX; SILEF-OTCQX; 1P2N-FSE] on Thursday May 6 announced indium and gallium assays from drilling at its Sunawayo Project in central Bolivia.
Highlights include drill hole SWD002, which intercepted 87 g/t indium, 7.0 g/t gallium and 48 g/t silver (252 g/t silver equivalent) over 9.0 metres within a 31-metre interval averaging 119 g/t silver equivalent.
The silver assays were first published on January 27, 2021 and March 18, 2021.
The latest drill results confirm the existence of extensive indium and gallium mineralization in concentrations exceeding silver concentrations in several instances “Primary indium and gallium deposits are not common, and that fact makes Sunawayo a special project,” the company said.
Silver Elephant acquired rights to the Sunawayo silver-lead project in September, 2020 via a binding sales and purchase agreement with a private party. The project is immediately adjacent to the Malku Khota silver project, which hosts a historic resource of 350 million ounces of silver contained in its Wara, Sucre, and Limnosa deposits, which are only 200 metres southeast of the Sunawayo border.
Sunawayo is patented land, whereas Malku Khota is unpatented land administered by the Bolivian government. In July 2020, Silver Elephant applied for a mining production contract. The application is currently under review.
Silver Elephant said the purchase of Sunawayo includes a fully-permitted 100 ton-per-day open pit mining operation which produces a lead concentrate.
Meanwhile, the company said Indium currently trades at around $7.00/oz after hitting a recent high of $10.00 in 2018. Gallium currently trades near $12/oz. Gallium is primarily used in the production of semiconductors.
Silver Elephant said it has completed its planned 15-hole drilling program on the project. Full assays are pending for the remaining drill holes.
Silver Elephant shares dropped slightly on the news, falling 1.4% or $0.005 to 36 cents on volume of 946,710. The shares trade in a 52-week range of 59 cents and 17 cents.
The company recently announced a deal with Victory Nickel Inc. [NI-CSE] to acquire the Minago Nickel Project in the Manitoba’s Thompson nickel belt.
The Minago Project contains a sulphide nickel deposit known as the Nose deposit that was advanced to a feasibility level stage as an open pit mine operation in 2009 by Victory Nickel. According to a former NI 43-101 compliant resource calculation, it contains a measured resource of 136.4 million lbs nickel and an indicated resource of 484 million lbs nickel, plus inferred resources of 170.4 million lbs.