VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Oct. 12, 2011) - Southern Silver Exploration Corp. (TSX VENTURE:SSV)(FRANKFURT:SEG) reported today that a second phase 1,500 metre diamond drill program has commenced at the Company's Oro Project in New Mexico, USA. Multiple drill targets are planned to test several deposit types, including bulk-tonnage intrusion-related gold, polymetallic replacement (CRD)/skarn deposits, and copper-gold porphyries. The drilling is planned within a +2km long mineralized corridor located in the historic Au-Ag Eureka Mining District near the town of Lordsburg.
The initial 2011 hole, ORO11-006, has been collared in a prospective area located between two anomalous holes drilled by the Company last year. The hole has an anticipated depth of approximately 600 metres and the Company plans to conduct down hole IP geophysics upon completion of the coring phase in an effort to generate new targets.
Company President Lawrence Page Q.C. said, "This is the first round of drilling since the claim package, consisting of Federal land, State land, and privately owned land has been consolidated into a comprehensive claim package. First phase drilling identified numerous targets on land which was not open for our exploration and which we now intend to explore in this phase of drilling to extend many areas of mineralization encountered in previous drill holes which were terminated at the claim boundaries."
Oro Update
Southern Silver recently added 40 additional claims at the Oro Project in order to cover several airborne magnetic geophysical anomalies that are often coincident with mapped alteration assemblages suggesting the potential for a much larger mineralizing system on the property. Field examination included the collection of additional geochemical samples and magnetic susceptibility readings at various surface locations and from the Company's 2010 drill core. These readings enabled a more detailed interpretation of the airborne magnetics that when combined with the additional geochemical data allowed drill sites to be chosen for two of the three primary exploration targets: a deeply buried but large porphyry copper-gold target and a shallower, disseminated gold target.
About the Oro Property
The Oro Project comprises a contiguous block of Federal, State and Private land totaling 17.2 sq km in the historic Eureka Mining District in southwest New Mexico.
The New Mexico Bureau of Mines estimates production from the Eureka district at 2.9 million pounds of lead, 1.7 million pounds of zinc, 0.5 million pounds of copper, 0.45 million ounces of silver, and 5,000 ounces of gold in oxide ore, mined from shallow workings above the water table from 1880 to 1961. Reported grades are attractive, ranging to 20 oz/ton Ag, 4% combined Zn and Pb, and up to 0.04 oz/ton Au. Smaller amounts of high-grade mineralization are reported to assay up to 5.5% Cu and 840 oz/ton Ag(1).
Southern Silver's work on the property has identified strong surface alteration, and distinct geochemical zoning in rock and bio-geochemical samples in three distinct target areas. Anomalous gold and base-metals often occur in association with thick intervals (+10 metres) of silicification, pyritic sulphides, and variable skarn alteration and hornfels in two of the five Phase I core holes.
Historic data in conjunction with Southern Silver's work to date suggest good potential for bulk- tonnage, intrusion-related gold mineralization with copper-gold porphyry potential at depth and possible polymetallic replacement/skarn deposits along several prominent structures on the Oro property.
Southern Silver has the right to earn a 100% interest in the property by making payments totaling $300,000 to private vendors by December 2012.