 ANNOUNCEMENT High-grade silver has Black Bear (ASX:BKB) roaring ahead of maiden Shafter resource
BKB is dining out on high-grade silver and polymetallic upside ahead of a maiden resource and development studies at the Shafter project in Texas. Pic: Getty Images Key points:
Drilling at Black Bear Minerals' Shafter project in Texas has returned exceptionally high-grade silver and polymetallic mineralisation as the company advances restart studies and works towards a maiden JORC resource. Diamond drilling at the project’s northeast returned exceptional results with a top hit of 8.8m grading 307g/t silver, 0.7% lead, 0.8% zinc and 0.1g/t gold from a down-hole depth of 259.1m, including 1.4m at 958g/t silver, 2% lead, 1.9% zinc and 0.2g/t gold in hole SFD019. This included a peak silver result of 1169g/t across 0.5m. That’s an impressive result on its own. But Black Bear Minerals (ASX:BKB) has also received additional drill results from outside the current non-JORC resource envelope that expands its mineralised footprint. Silver grades backed by polymetallic upside By-product results of up to 36.5% zinc, 0.5g/t gold and 6.9% lead highlight the polymetallic nature of the mineralisation. That’s a significant development given the non-JORC resource incorporates only silver. “Latest drilling continues to demonstrate exceptional grade and potential of the Shafter silver project, returning high grade silver mineralisation of up to 1169g/t Ag, with 8.8m at 307g/t Ag in SFD019,” BKB chief executive officer Dennis Lindgren said. “Importantly, the results further highlight the project’s polymetallic potential accompanying high-grade silver across the system. “As we progress toward a maiden JORC MRE and advance restart studies, we continue to see potential value beyond the existing 17.5Moz at 289g/t silver-only foreign MRE and believe Shafter is demonstrating the qualities of a significant near-term US silver development opportunity.” 
Map displaying holes with assays and historical drill intercepts. Pic: Black Bear Minerals High-grade silver with restart potential The Shafter project sits within a basin carbonate sequence that extends 1600km from northern Mexico through southwest Texas and an extension of Mexico’s Eastern Sierra Madre Belt, which hosts Newmont’s Peñasquito silver mine – the fifth largest in the world. Mineralisation spans about 4km of strike from west to east, with the central portion outcropping at surface at the intersection between the MacDaniel and Mina Grande Faults. This zone was historically worked as the Presidio mine from 1883 until 1942. It produced a hefty 35.2Moz of silver at an average grade of 521g/t. BKB’s initial drilling has now verified previous exploration with the intersection in hole SFD019 being both thicker and higher grade than the historical hole that was twinned. Drilling at the western edge of the historical Presidio mine to test an extension to the resource at a structural intersection ended early due to encountering a void with the final sample returning a mineralisation intersection of 0.5m at 140g/t silver from 94.8m to end of hole. When it comes to development studies, BKB is hardly starting from scratch. Shafter includes a modern permitted Merrill-Crowe processing plant and refinery, grid-connected power, water rights, extensive support infrastructure and more than 160km of historical underground workings. These are all likely to support restart options that are being examined by leading engineering firm Ausenco. Next steps BKB is now planning to carry out limited infill drilling to validate the foreign MRE and support the estimation of a JORC compliant resource and progress the mine restart study. It is currently relogging and resampling available historical core to better understand the distribution of all other significant commodities at the project, with a view of incorporating results into a future JORC resource estimate. The company will also carry out systematic sampling of historical mine workings at Presidio to determine the grade of material that remains in the walls of drifts and stopes, where selective mining was previously undertaken to obtain ore above 500g/t silver. There’s more untapped potential at the site. The material remaining within the historic Presidio mine is currently excluded from the resource and spans about 1km of strike that has yet to be adequately quantified. Black Bear is currently updating stratigraphic and structural models across the project, with additional drilling to be conducted across the entire project area that will focus on testing for extensions to silver mineralisation.      |
