Tinka Resources drills 6.6% zinc, 18 g/t silver over 21.6 metres at South Ayawilca, Peru
Tinka Resources Ltd. [TK-TSXV, BVL; TKRFF-OTCQB] reported results for the final three drill holes of the 11,000-metre 2022/2023 drill program at South Ayawilca, Peru, and provided an update on the company’s continuing exploration activities. The recent drill campaign at Ayawilca was completed at the end of May 2023. The company is now focused on completing a mineral resource update for the Ayawilca deposit and revising future mining scenarios via a desktop trade-off study. Exploration is also continuing at the company’s nearby Silvia copper-gold project.
Drill results from the silver zone at South Ayawilca were highly encouraging with a high-grade silver intercept in a 150-metre step-out in hole A22-195. The other two new holes reported here, A23-221 and A23-223, intersected high-grade “Zinc zone” mineralization in resource confirmation holes. All drill hole results have now been incorporated into a revised geological model for the Ayawilca deposit, and an independent consultant is currently updating the Mineral Resource estimation for the Zinc and Tin zones.
Key highlights: At the Zinc Zone Hole A23-223 returned 21.6 metres at 6.6% zinc and 18 g/t silver from 254.0 metres depth, including 7.6 metres at 10.7% zinc and 18 g/t silver from 268.0 metres depth. Hole A23-221 returned 13.8 metres at 6.8% zinc from 290.2 metres depth.
Silver zone: Hole A22-195 returned 3.4 metres at 465 g/t silver from 209.7 metres in a 150-metre step-out hole.
The Silver zone is interpreted as a subvertical, northeast-trending structure with high-grade silver over a strike length of at least 500 metres on the northern edge of the zinc-rich massive sulphide bodies at South Ayawilca.
Previous downhole intercepts of the Silver zone include 7.1 metres at 604 g/t silver and 11.5 metres at 781 g/t silver. The Silver zone mineralization remains open in all directions including up- and down-plunge.
True thicknesses of the above drill intercepts are estimated to be approximately 70% of the downhole thicknesses.
Dr. Graham Carman, president and CEO, stated: “We are pleased to report results from the final holes of the 11,000-metre drill program at Ayawilca. These latest drill holes targeted both Zinc zone massive sulphide mineralization and extensions of the structurally controlled epithermal Silver zone mineralization on the edge of the massive zinc sulphides at South Ayawilca. All drill intersections have now been incorporated into a new geological model which will form the basis of an updated Mineral Resource estimation which we expect to be released in September 2023.
“Exploration is continuing at the Silvia NW copper-gold target 30 km from Ayawilca. A 121 line-km drone magnetic survey has just been completed, covering outcrops of Cu-Au skarn mineralization which are exposed in several locations over a 3km strike length. Sampling by Tinka has identified high-grade copper-gold skarn in trench samples grading up to 2.7% copper and 22 g/t gold over 2 metres with the best continuous sample being 46 metres at 0.8% copper and 1.9 g/t gold — see previous news release. Processing and interpretation of the data are underway. An environmental permit has been filed with the Peruvian authorities which will allow future drilling once granted.”
Zinc zone drill results 2022/2023
The company completed 33 diamond drill holes for 11,115 metres in the 2022-23 drill campaign. These were both infill and step-out holes and were focused at West and South Ayawilca which are known areas of high-grade zinc mineralization.
The full suite of drill results from the 2022-23 program have now been incorporated into an updated 3D geological model and a Mineral Resource update is in progress. The updated Mineral Resource estimation is expected to be available in September 2023.
Tinka is an exploration and development company with its flagship property being the 100%-owned Ayawilca zinc-silver-tin project in central Peru. The Zinc zone deposit has an estimated Indicated Mineral Resource of 19.0 Mt at 7.15% Zn, 16.8 g/t Ag and 0.2% Pb and Inferred Mineral Resource of 47.9 Mt at 5.4% Zn, 20.0 g/t Ag and 0.4% Pb. The Ayawilca Tin zone has an estimated Inferred Mineral Resource of 8.4 Mt grading 1.0% Sn. Tinka recently completed an 11,000-metre resource definition drill program at West Ayawilca and South Ayawilca, and a Mineral Resource update is pending.