Apollo Silver conducting Preliminary Economic Assessment for Calico Project, California
Apollo Silver Corp. [TSXV: APGO, OTCQB: APGOF, Frankfurt: 6ZF] reported that it has engaged SLR Consulting (Canada) Ltd. (SLR), a globally recognized engineering and environmental consulting firm, to lead a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) on the company’s Calico Silver Project in San Bernardino County, southern California. The project hosts one of the largest undeveloped primary silver deposits in the United States.
In parallel with the PEA, Apollo Silver will advance metallurgical and geotechnical programs designed to further refine the company’s technical understanding of the Project as it progresses forward on the development path. The company has engaged SLR as advisors to assist in managing the geotechnical and metallurgical investigations required to support the mine development plan.
Highlights – PEA Initiated: SLR engaged to conduct a PEA at Calico. Additional Technical Support: SLR will also provide on-going metallurgical and geotechnical advisory support for additional development engineering analysis at Calico as the Company continues to advance the Project.
Exploration Work: Precision GeoSurveys US Inc. has recently completed a high-resolution airborne magnetic and radiometric survey covering ~632 line-km, designed to support geological interpretation, future exploration, and drill targeting.
Ross McElroy, President and CEO of Apollo Silver, commented, “The initiation of the PEA marks an important milestone in advancing the Calico Project on the development path. This study will evaluate potential mining and processing scenarios for the significant mineral resources identified at the project. Engaging SLR to lead the PEA, while also supporting our on-going metallurgical and geotechnical programs, is expected to strengthen our technical understanding of the Project to support further project development on the path to Calico becoming a future producer.”
“At the same time, our exploration activities continue to ramp up, as highlighted by the recently completed airborne geophysical survey. We believe that the Calico Project has excellent potential for further significant discoveries, and that a systematic, multi-faceted exploration approach beginning with the surficial lithologic and structural mapping and complemented by the regional geophysics survey that are now completed, is key to unlocking that potential.”
SLR will provide geotechnical advisory services and technical oversight for our programs, including planning, analysis, and quality assurance of site investigations.
The geotechnical scope of work will include: Site investigation planning and technical guidance for geotechnical logging and laboratory testing; desktop geotechnical gap analysis and supervision and QA/QC of third-party geotechnical work.
SLR will also provide metallurgical advisory services to support test work and process evaluation at the Waterloo deposit. The metallurgical program is intended to advance the company’s understanding of mineral recovery and support development of an optimized processing flowsheet for upcoming development studies.
Metallurgical work will include test work recommendations and program design, sample selection and laboratory test work planning, monitoring and interpretation of metallurgical test work results and processing flowsheet evaluation and recovery estimation. Previously collected metallurgical samples are being evaluated for further testing.
Apollo Silver engaged Precision to complete a high-resolution airborne magnetic and radiometric survey over portions of the Calico Project. The survey covered approximately 632 line-km across the Waterloo and Mule properties and has now been completed. The survey was carried out at 50-metre line spacing, providing high-resolution geophysical coverage across the project area.
The airborne program was designed to collect high-resolution magnetic and radiometric data across priority exploration areas of the Calico Project, compare radiometric signatures observed at the Waterloo deposit with data collected over the Mule property, evaluate whether geological signatures associated with the known Waterloo mineralization can also be identified at Mule and generate and refine potential drill targets for future exploration programs.
The Calico Project is a large silver project located approximately 9 miles northeast of the city of Barstow, in a region known as the historic Calico Silver Mining District. The project is comprised of 525 mineral claims (two unpatented mill site claims, 474 unpatented lode mining claims, 29 fee lands claims and 20 patented lode mining claims) in three separate properties (Langtry, Waterloo and Mule) totaling 8,419 acres. The majority of the mineral resources are located on private land with vested mining rights.
The 2025 mineral resource estimate for Calico contains 125 million ounces of silver in the Measured and Indicated category within 55 million tonnes grading 71 g/t silver, and 58 million ounces of silver in the Inferred category within 25 million tonnes grading 71 g/t silver.
In addition, the project contains significant critical mineral resources in barite and zinc, alongside its substantial silver resource, positioning Calico as a source of multiple minerals considered important to domestic supply chains. The deposit hosts an Indicated Resource of 2.7 million tonnes of barite and 354 million pounds of zinc within 36 million tonnes grading 7.4% barite and 0.45% zinc, and an Inferred Resource of 0.65 million tonnes of barite and 258 million pounds of zinc within 17 million tonnes grading 3.9% barite and 0.71% zinc.
The company also holds an option on the Cinco de Mayo Project in Chihuahua, Mexico, host to a major carbonate replacement (CRD) deposit that is both high-grade and large tonnage.