Toronto, ON-based
Bunker Hill Mining Corp. (BNKR) (
CSE.BNKR,
OTC: BHLL,
Forum) is sending all the signs that it is positioned to be the next great silver mining story out of the prolific Silver Valley in Idaho. Just read the releases. Within the last six months the former COO of Barrick Gold, Richard Williams, did his research and due diligence and decided to take over. Mr. Williams then brought along with him several other hand-picked top Barrick Gold executives, including their most talented mine operator, Sam Ash.
This “Dream Team” created an aggressive new plan to “Pivot to Silver at the Bunker” and have recently closed a C$20.4 Million oversubscribed brokered private placement deal lead by Sprott Asset Management – a global leader in precious metals investments. The new team has recently begun initial drilling, and have just started releasing some very promising results. And most importantly, they are finally ready to start telling their story. Do we have your attention? Great!
Bunker Hill is a historically significant mine poised for a second profitable and environmentally-sustainable life. Before closing in 1981, it produced 35 million tons of ore in silver-lead and zinc concentrates with an average grade of 8.76% lead, 3.67% zinc, and 5.49 oz/t silver. In turn, this created a total of 165 million ounces of silver over the course of 95 years.
Fast-forward to today and there’s definitive scientific basis behind the old maxim that “the best place to find a new mine is in the shadow of an old mine.”
It was named after one of Colonial America’s earliest and most famous battles fought against the British in 1775. One-hundred years later, silver mining operations commenced in Northern Idaho’s prolific Silver Valley along with the production of zinc and lead via its electrolytic zinc processing plant and lead smelter. Between 1887 and 1981 Bunker Hill was one of the most productive mines in America, yielding almost
10 million tonnes of zinc, lead, and silver, before closing in 1981.
Now, its namesake lives on with the arrival in 2020 of an exciting new team led by Sam Ash – one of Barrick Gold’s young engineering champions and former EGM of the Lumwana Copper mine. Living alongside the mine – where his father worked as an engineer in the 1970s – he intends to verify, explore, and develop the mine’s still untapped higher-grade silver potential using the most modern analytical, exploration, mining, and processing techniques.
Led by Former Barrick Gold COO Richard Williams, Bunker Hill Mining has emerged as a forward-thinking Company that is definitely not living in the past.
On October 22, 2019, the company signed an amended lease agreement with an option to purchase the mine. Following the deal the company has continued to raise money, closing several private placements , most recently in August 2020 and is now deploying USD$20 million in working capital to design the highest margin, silver-focused, restart plan.
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In the News: High-Grade Intercepts and “Bonanza Grade Silver”
On October 27th, BNKR reported “multiple near surface significant high-grade silver intercepts at its Bunker Hill Mine located in Idaho’s Silver Valley, USA.” A total of ten holes were drilled, with each hole returning high grade silver intercepts. Notably, there are five intercepts grading over 800 g/t Ag equivalent and two intercepts grading over 1,000 g/t Ag equivalent. The drilling campaign continues, with more drill results expected to be released in the upcoming weeks.
Top selected intercepts include:
- Hole 7035A: 7.6m at 165.52 g/t Ag, including 1.5m at 648 g/t Ag
- Hole 7005: 4.6m at 126.56 g/t Ag, including 1.5m at 239 g/t Ag
- Hole 7002: 2.0m at 178.72 g/t Ag, including 0.4m at 394 g/t Ag
- Hole 7012: 2.1m at 163.15 g/t Ag, including 1.1m at 280 g/t Ag
- Hole 7039: 5.8m at 127.24 g/t Ag, including 0.9m at 295 g/t Ag
Bunker Hill’s recently-appointed CEO, Sam Ash, commented on the high-grade silver discoveries:
“The presence of high-grade silver in these drill results supports our thesis that significant high grade silver mineralization exists at Bunker Hill. These results, coupled with the fact that all of the intercepts are not associated with our recently published 43-101 resource, reinforces our confidence in unlocking significant value at Bunker Hill by aggressively pursuing a silver focused exploration program. In addition the proximity of these intercepts to existing infrastructure is supportive of our intention of advancing towards operational restart”.
Before joining the Company, Mr. Ash was a partner at mining giant Barrick Gold Corporation (
TSE.ABX). During his nine years with Barrick, and in addition to his time as EGM of the Lumwana Copper Mine in Zambia, he held various roles working on and optimizing projects in the U.S., Zambia, and Tanzania.
In a recently filed SEDAR independent technical report, the Company detailed information regarding the recently completed digitization and 3D modeling of historic geological data which confirmed
numerous high-grade silver exploration target zones and formed the basis for its shift to high grade silver exploration. This first high-grade silver exploration program consisted of 4,570 metres of diamond drilling from surface and underground, focused on targets in the upper levels of the mine located in close proximity to existing infrastructure. NI 43-101-compliant inferred resources are currently estimated to be 8,851,000 tonnes grading 1.27 oz/ton silver, for 11,240,000 oz, 2.31% lead, for 409,555,000 lb, and 4.97% zinc, for 879,678 lb.
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The Bottom Line: Breathing New Life into an Old Mine
Under new experienced mining leadership, a historic proven past-producing mine, and a modern, environmentally-sound zero footprint mining operation, Bunker Hill Mining Corp. has set itself on a steady path to create a significant value proposition for shareholders and metals & mining investors moving forward.
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To find out more about this Company, visit
bunkerhillmining.com.
FULL DISCLOSURE: This is a paid article produced by Stockhouse Publishing.