Southern Silver drills 185 g/t silver over 11.8 metres at Cerro Las Minitas, Mexico
Southern Silver Exploration Corp. [SSV-TSXV; SSVFF-OTCQB; SEG1-FSE; SSVCL-Santiago] reports drilling continues to extend high-grade silver-polymetallic mineralization at the newly identified North Felsite Target on the 100%-owned Cerro Las Minitas project, Durango, Mexico. The North Felsite target is an area located approximately 400 metres northwest of the La Bocona and Mina Pina shafts on the eastern side of the Cerro, in an area that was not included in the most recent NI43-101 Mineral Resource update on the property.
The newly released polymetallic sulphide intercepts from the North Felsite target area include a 3.8-metre interval (3.0 metres est. True Width) averaging 354 g/t silver, 0.7 g/t gold, 6.1% lead and 2.6% zinc (713 g/t AgEq) within a 14.8-metre interval (11.8 metres est. TW) averaging 185 g/t silver, 0.2 g/t gold, 2.8% lead and 1.0% zinc (336 g/t AgEq) from drill hole 21CLM-177; a 0.7-metre interval (0.5 metres est. TW) averaging 914 g/t silver, 2.1 g/t gold, 7.2% lead and 4.8% zinc (1,604 g/t AgEq) within a 5.1-metre interval (3.7 metre est. TW) averaging 174 g/t silver, 0.5 g/t gold, 1.5% lead and 0.9% zinc (310 g/t AgEq) from drill hole 21CLM-181; and a 4.4-metre interval (3.2 metre est. TW) averaging 379 g/t silver, 0.5% copper, 1.7% lead and 2.6% zinc (595 g/t AgEq) within an 8.0-metre interval (5.7 metre est. TW) averaging 234 g/t silver, 0.3% copper, 1.1% lead and 2.0% zinc (384g/t AgEq) from drill hole 21CLM-181.
This current drilling tested down dip of previously reported intercepts from drill holes 21CLM-175 (1.9 metres est. TW of 1,530 g/t AgEq and 21CLM-172 (0.4 metres est. TW of 610 g/t AgEq and now extends the projection of mineralization within the North Felsite zone to over 400 metres below surface and upward of 250 metres along strike, making it a potentially substantial discovery. More drilling remains to be completed on this target including lateral and down-dip step-outs of this newly identified lens of mineralization which will form the basis of further exploration on the property in 2022.
Drilling resumed on the property in early January. As part of these new exploration efforts, three additional holes were completed on the El Sol claim to follow-up on recently reported high-grade mineralization in 21Sol-003 (3.5 metres of 932 g/t AgEq. Assays from these three holes are pending and anticipated over the coming weeks. Eight holes totaling 2,920 metres have been completed on the El Sol concession in 2021-22.
Drilling has now resumed on the North Felsite target. Initial drilling will step-out from hole 21CLM-181 as it targets additional mineralization both along strike and at depth (see Figure 2). Ten drill holes totalling 3,896 metres were completed in the North Felsite target area in the Fall of 2021.
Rob Macdonald, Vice President Exploration, stated, “The identification of a significant new lens of mineralization on the north side of the Cerro highlights the continued exploration potential of the property. Drilling resumed in January and will continue the process of resource expansion while work proceeds on the development of a Preliminary Economic Assessment of the Cerro las Minitas project due in Q2 2022.”
The company’s property portfolio also includes the Oro porphyry copper-gold project located in southern New Mexico, USA, comprised of patented land, State leases and BLM mineral claims totalling 22.3 km2. Targeting has been finalized and permitting and bonding completed for a 4,000-metre drill program, designed to test several copper-molybdenum porphyry and copper-gold skarn targets within a broad quartz-sericite-pyrite alteration zone, interpreted to overlie an unexposed porphyry centre. Drilling is planned to commence this month.