Cerro Las Minitas project...big silver news imminent
Exploration on the company's flagship Cerro Las Minitas property, Durango, Mexico, is financed by Electrum Global Holdings LP, which is financing a broad range of exploration activities to earn a 60-per-cent interest in the project through a $5-million (U.S.) option earn-in on the property, with Southern Silver acting as operator.
The Cerro Las Minitas project contains an estimated inferred resource of 17.5 million ounces silver, 237 million pounds lead, 626 million pounds zinc (77.3 million ounces silver equivalent), and an estimated indicated resource of 10.8 million ounces silver, 189 million pounds lead and 207 million pounds zinc (36.5 million ounces AgEq) (1).
A total of 87 drill holes for 32,410 metres have now been completed on the Cerro Las Minitas project with exploration expenditures of approximately $7.5-million (U.S.) spent to date.
The 2016 exploration program is under way with a drill program focused on targets based on the 2015 drill results, which continued to extend the projections of high-grade silver-polymetallic mineralization at both the Blind-El Sol zones and the recent discovery at the Mina La Bocona zone.
(1) The 2016 Cerro Las Minitas resource estimate was prepared following CIM (Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum) definitions for classification of mineral resources. Resources are constrained using mainly geological constraints and approximate 10-gram-per-tonne AgEq grade shells. The block models comprise an array of blocks measuring 10 metres by 10 metres by two metres with grades for gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc and gold equivalent values interpolated using ID2 weighting. The models identified at a 150-gram-per-tonne AgEq cut-off, an indicated resource of 3,724,000 tonnes averaging 90 grams per tonne Ag, 0.05 gram per tonne Au, 2.3 per cent Pb, 2.5 per cent Zn and 0.09 per cent Cu, and a cumulative inferred resource of 6,611,000 tonnes averaging 82 grams per tonne Ag, 0.17 gram per tonne Au, 1.6 per cent Pb, 4.3 per cent Zn and 0.2 per cent Cu. Mineral resources are estimated using an average long-term price of $15 (U.S.) per ounce silver, $1,100 (U.S.) per ounce gold, $2.75 (U.S.) per pound copper, 90 U.S. cents per pound lead and 90 U.S. cents per pound zinc, and metal recoveries of 82 per cent silver, 86 per cent lead and 80 per cent zinc. Mineral Resources are conceptual in nature and as such do not have demonstrated economic viability.
The current resource estimate was prepared by Garth Kirkham, PGeo, of Kirkham Geosciences Ltd., who is the independent qualified person responsible for presentation and review of the mineral resource estimate.
Robert Macdonald, MSc, PGeo, is Southern Silver's general manager of exploration, and is the qualified person responsible for the supervision and preparation of the technical information in this disclosure.