Excellon Resources releases Mexican silver estimate
Excellon Resources Inc. [EXN-TSX; EXLLF-OTC] on Thursday September 17 released an updated mineral resource estimate for the Calvario and Lechuzas zones on the 100%-owned Evolucion project in Zacatecas, Mexico.
The estimate includes an Indicated Resource of 6.4 million tonnes at 170 g/t silver equivalent (AgEq), representing 35 million AgEq ounces. On top of that is an Inferred Resource of 14.9 million tonnes of 135 g/t AgEq, representing 64.8 million AgEq ounces.
Excellon said the estimate is based on 17,120 metres of additional surface drilling that was completed in the resource area between June 2018 and December, 2019.
The company is planning an expansion drilling program to test the strike extension of the mineralized zones and follow up on parallel structures, where recent grab samples returned values of up to 2.30 g/t gold, 203 g/t silver and 10.4% lead.
Excellon shares eased 3.27% or $0.16 to $4.74 in light volume Thursday. The shares are currently trading in a 52-week range of $6.15 and $1.55.
Excellon has Platosa, Mexico’s highest-grade silver mine since production began in 2005, Kilgore, a gold development project in Idaho, and an option on Silver City, a high-grade epithermal silver district in Saxony, Germany.
Kilgore is a caldera-related epithermal gold deposit with current Indicated Resources of 825,000 ounces gold and 136,000 ounces Inferred.
The Evolucion property covers 45,000 hectares and has 35 km of strike in one of the world’s premier silver mining districts – the Fresnillo trend. The Lechuzas and Calvario zones are hosted within the Caracol Formation, which hosts the most significant deposits in the Fresnillo trend.
The property includes a conventional grinding and flotation mineral processing facility, which the company is using to process ore from the Platosa Mine.
“We discovered the Lechuzas Zone adjacent to our Miguel Auza mill in late 2018 and identified a sizeable mineral resource that when combined with the historic Calvario Vein, is similar to other deposits currently producing in the region,” said Ben Pullinger, Senior Vice-President, Geology, at Excellon.
“The mineral resource estimate represents a sizeable addition to Excellon’s overall metal inventory and a foundation to further advance the project, as both Lechuzas and Calvario are open for extension along strike and at depth,” Pullinger said.