Silver Bull Resources, Inc. (TSX: T.SVB, Stock Forum) said that the underground drill program conducted between July 2012 and December 2012 which twinned a series of historical long-hole drill holes at the eastern end of the Shallow Silver Zone and Zinc Zone has successfully shown the historical long-hole data set is a fair representation of the grade and width of the silver and zinc mineralization in this area.
According to the Silver Bull Resources press release, the high correlation between the historical long-hole data set and Silver Bull's recently completed core twinning holes means that over 39,000 meters of historical drilling focused in mainly high-grade silver and zinc mineralization will now have a more significant influence in any resource calculation at Sierra Mojada.
The flagship Sierra Mojada project is located 150 kilometers north of the city of Torreon in Coahuila, Mexico, and is highly prospective for silver and zinc.
In Silver Bull's most recent NI43-101 resource report on the Sierra Mojada project completed in July 2012 by SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc., SRK noted that there appeared to be a large apparent bias between surface drill holes and the long-hole dataset. As a result, SRK severely restricted the influence of over 2,700 long-holes totaling approximately 39,000 meters of drilling in the resource estimation.
In its recommendations in the July 2012 NI43-101 report, SRK recommended that Silver Bull initiate an underground diamond drill program in areas that had been sampled exclusively by long-holes and channel samples in order to validate the higher grade portions of the ore body with drill core.
Between July and December 2012, Silver Bull completed over 6,500 meters of underground diamond core drilling, twinning a number of long-holes over a 1.5 kilometer east-west strike at the eastern end of the Shallow Silver and Zinc Zones.
At the completion of the twinning drill program, Silver Bull engaged SRK to re-evaluate the data to confirm the validity of the historical long-hole data set. To do this, SRK ran a series of tests employing various metrics to compare the twin holes with the long-holes and surface holes, using 5 metre by 5 metre by 5 metre blocks which represent the block size used in the last resource estimate.
SRK concluded that the grades and widths seen in the historical long-hole data set were confirmed by the diamond drilling, and that the twinning program validated this data set.
As a result of the twinning program Silver Bull is now able to confidently use the long-hole data set with a less restrictive range of influence than has previously been used in any resource estimate for the project.
Silver Bull is now focused on issuing a new NI43-101 resource update and expects this will be out before the end of March 2013. T
his new report will include over 10,000 meters of additional surface drilling, 6,500 meters of underground drilling, and the increased influence for over 39,000 meters from the long-hole data set.
JDS Energy & Mining Inc. has been commissioned to complete the next NI43-101 report as a lead-in to a preliminary economic assessment, which is planned for the third quarter of 2013.
Silver Bull is a mineral exploration company based out of Vancouver, Canada.
On Thursday morning, Silver Bull was trading at $0.375 a share. The company had a market cap of $59.7 million, based on 159 million shares outstanding. The 52-week high and low was $0.60 and $0.31 respectively.