Ram Zone a high grade feeder structure?I have always belived that the primary La Cigarra feeder zone is right there, either at depth below surface - a buried breccia, contact zone of a buried intrusive, high grade veins, etc. - or a near-surface zone. The high grade feeder zone for La Cigarra ounces is right there somewhere. I have always believed that something nearby supplied the 63 million silver ounces to San Gregorio and Las Carolinas zones, and provided ounces for the numerous other zones (still to be drilled). The property has essentially only been drilled at San Gregorio and Las Carolinas (plus 11 positive holes at La Borracha - where all 11 holes hit silver - and 2 or 3 exploratory holes elsewhere). As such, Northair never hunted for the feeder zone - through drilling. And, subsequently, the feeder zone was never found.
Ram Zone is showing up at 3.8 km long on the geophysical readings. There is sample evidence, from both the surface and adit openings underground (openings made by past artisanal small-scale miners), which suggests that Ram Zone has a least some high grade veins (if not plenty).
We are not going to know how fruitful it is until we drill it.
It looks like Kootenay`s management continues to think along the same lines. They seem to think that the chances are good that Ram Zone is a feeder structure.
Also of note, Pan American is looking to drill Promontorio/La Negra near-term, but they haven`t put together a timeframe plan. However, they have committed to spend US $1 million over the next 9 or 10 months.
Here is the ``Outlook`` (pg 17) part of Kootenay`s April 29th filed SEDAR M&A report (for YE 2015):
``Outlook``
``Acquisition of the La Cigarra project through Northair provides the Company with a second “Flagship Project”, a resource with significant expansion potential in one of the most prolific silver mining districts of Mexico, the Parral Mining District. In conjunction with the Pan American agreement on Promontorio/La Negra the Company’s time and financial resources are freed up to work on improving the La Cigarra property. This will entail evaluation of how to best advance it towards economic assessment and will focus on efforts aimed at expanding the resource through drilling, improving grade through geologic re interpretation and drill testing higher grade areas and structures, and additional metallurgical work. Immediate plans will include a small drill program focused on the higher grade Ram target, a feeder structure which was a high priority for Northair. Once we have evaluated the numerous targets and prioritized them according to their probability to improve potential economics of La Cigarra a larger program of drilling aimed at achieving that objective will be designed and initiated. The near term budget over the next few months which includes Ram drilling will be about $500,000.00.
Work on Promontorio/La Negra is being conducted by Pan American who have indicated they want to be drilling in the near term. A specific drill budget has not been set. Pan American has agreed to a minimum budget of $US 1.0 million to be expended by February of 2017.
The Company will also continue to focus on additional acquisitions in the silver resource space, predominately in Mexico as long as accretive deals can be made and silver ounces can be purchased for less than their finding cost. The Company also continues to fund modest grass roots exploration that generates new mineral discoveries with the objective of seeking partners to finance the advancement of these projects.``