First Majestic reports high-grade gold, silver find in Mexico
First Majestic Silver Corp. [AG-TSX, AG-NYSE, FMV-Frankfurt] has announced details of a new high-grade gold and silver discovery at its Santa Elena property in Sonora, Mexico.
The company said this discovery, the Navidad vein system, was made at depth and adjacent to the company’s 100%-owned and currently producing Ermitano mine operation, which consists of the Santa Elena underground mine, the Ermitano underground mine and processing plant.
“This is the most promising discovery at the Santa Elena property since Ermitano was discovered in 2016,’’ said First Majestic President and CEO Keith Neumeyer. “The proximity of this new discovery to the producing Ermitano mine is important from an operational standpoint, and very encouraging for the prospects of continued exploration success across the underexplored, 100,000-plus-hectare Santa Elena land package,’’ he said. “We believe that Navidad has the potential to significantly increase Santa Elena’s estimated mineral resources, and ultimately, extend the mine life at this operation.’’
First Majestic is a Mexico and United States-focused mining company. It owns and operates the San Dimas silver-gold mine, the Santa Elena silver-gold mine and the Le Encantada silver mine as well as a portfolio of development and exploration projects, including the Jerritt Canyon gold project in Nevada. Production from these mines amounted to 26.9 million silver equivalent (AgEq) ounces in 2023, consisting of 10.3 million ounces of silver and 198,921 ounces of gold.
The company also owns and operates the “First Mint” minting facility in Nevada.
To date, seven drill holes have been completed to test the Navidad discovery, the company said in a press release. Six of these holes intersected significant vein-hosted gold and silver mineralization. The closest drill hole intercept to the Ermitano mine is located approximately 500 metres southwest and 750 metres below existing mine development.
Drilling highlights for the Navidad vein system include hole EW-24-364, which returned 8.15 g/t gold and 427 g/t silver over 4.78 metres true thickness.
The last two drill holes to intersect the Navidad system, EW-24-368 and EW-24-370, are spaced 750 metres apart and produced the two highest-grade vein intercepts to date. Drill hole EW-24-368 intersected the Navida vein and yielded 54.93 g/t gold and 399 g/t silver over 1.82 (true thickness). Drill hole EW-24-370 intersected two, thick-banded quartz veins, the Navidad vein and the HW vein with high-grade gold and silver mineralization spaced 190 metres apart downhole. These two vein intersections yielded 5.65 g/t gold and 46 g/t silver over 5.75 metres and 10.13 g/t gold and 86 g/t silver over 4.42 metres.
First Majestic Silver shares advanced on the news, rising 1.07% or $0.09 to $8.52. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of $11.58 and $5.67.
First Majestic said that total production from its three producing mines in the second quarter of 2024 reached 5.3 million silver equivalent ounces (AgEq), consisting of 2.1 million ounces of silver and 39,339 ounces of gold.