Silver Viper completes geophysics, drilling at La Virginia, Mexico
Silver Viper Minerals Corp. [VIPR-TSXV; VIPRF-OTCQB] provided an update on exploration activities within the La Virginia silver-gold project, located in Sonora, Mexico. Exploration efforts since the release of Silver Viper’s maiden NI 43-101 gold-silver mineral resource estimate have continued to advance with exploration drilling at El Rubi, and expansion of mapping and sampling coverage across the project area.
Recent drilling has been performed at the Paredones zone on the eastern structural/mineralized trend. Quantec Geoscience contractors have now completed data collection for a 31-line-km magnetotelluric geophysical survey covering approximately 610 hectares (1,500 acres). Final deliverables from the survey are expected in the coming weeks.
Silver Viper engaged Quantec Geoscience to execute a Titan-MT deep-penetrating geophysical survey centred on the El Rubi deposit, Paredones and El Molino target areas. The survey is expected to greatly assist in targeting for deeper portions of the mineralized system. The Titan magnetotelluric (MT) survey is capable of acquiring information from depths in excess of 1,500 metres below surface. In anticipation of the survey, drilling recently focused on probing of prospective mineralized structures and trends, most recently the Paredones area on the eastern trend subparallel to that hosting El Rubi.
Silver Viper’s president and CEO Steve Cope stated: “Quantec has shared preliminary data from the first lines of the MT survey. We expect the geophysics to help in refining drill testing of existing zones and to reveal new deeper unexposed targets. Once the data is processed, we anticipate identification of additional prospective targets, comparable in size to El Rubi. Preliminary data is already showing potential new targets that were previously unknown.”
The exploration team has reviewed preliminary 2-D imaging from the first of the MT survey lines and believe the method will be very effective at La Virginia. The company eagerly awaits final deliverables expected in the coming weeks.
Prospecting continues along the El Rubi trend and the adjacent El Molino trend. Advances have been made at the La Colmena, Paredones and El Molino South prospect areas. These early-stage prospects host outcroppings of silicified hydrothermal breccias and quartz veining, similar to breccias and veining seen in the El Rubi area. Current work includes rock chip sampling and mapping.
Preliminary surface chip sampling of mineralized outcrop at El Molino prospect has returned a best result of one metre grading 90 g/t silver and 8.31 g/t gold from an interval averaging three metres of 66 g/t silver and 5.11 g/t gold.
Recent diamond drilling within the project has probed for lateral and vertical extensions from known mineralized intercepts at El Rubi. Results from the currently reported holes are on the company’s website. Highlights included
Recent drilling focused largely on testing areas of the El Rubi trend as it projects toward the north-south-trending Macho Libre structure, followed by a preliminary test of the Paredones area, east of El Rubi. Best results from the recent work include 0.5 metre (0.35-metre estimated true width) grading 771 g/t silver and 1.47 g/t gold from 553.5 metres from hole LV21-316.
Four holes testing the Paredones trend returned assays to date, those being: LV21-323 through 326, with a best value of 1.50 metres (1.05 metres estimated true width) grading 5.0 g/t silver and 4.99 g/t gold from a depth of 171 metres downhole. Work on this prospect is encouraging and Silver Viper will continue to explore this trend.
La Virginia is located 220 km east-northeast of Hermosillo, Sonora, and is prospective for low-sulphidation epithermal precious metal mineralization. Silver Viper has completed a total of 141 drill holes at La Virginia for a combined 44,687 metres. Exploration drilling has paused pending processing of the geophysical survey.
Drilling to date builds upon a sizeable database of recent historical work including 52,635 metres of drill core from 188 diamond drill holes, generated by the efforts of previous operators between 2010 and 2013. The company is expanding upon this work by continuing exploration north and south into prospective untested ground.
Silver Viper has 100% ownership of the La Virginia concessions acquired from the most recent operator, Pan American Silver Corp. [PAAS-TSX, NASDAQ], and has an option to acquire a 100% interest in the Rubi-Esperanza group of claims internal to those concessions.