One of the highest-grade silver projects in the world is the Mangazeisky Silver Project in Russia. Operated by Silver Bear Resources, the deposit boasts reserves of 809 g/t silver and Indicated and Inferred resources in the 1,300-1,400 g/t range.
Excellon Resources' La Platosa stands out as one of Mexico's highest-grade mines. It offers Measured and Indicated resources of 760 g/t silver.
Silver Bull Resources Inc.'s (SVB:TSX; SVBL:NYSE.MKT) Sierra Mojada project in Coahuila, northern Mexico, may be giving both these projects a run for their money. The company announced on Feb. 21 assays from seven drill holes from its newly discovered sulphide zone that sits under its oxide zone.
Highlights include:
- Hole T17022 -- 6 meters @ 802g/t silver, 5.87% zinc, 3.3% copper, and 0.54% lead.
- Hole T17019 -- 2 meters @ 1,300g/t silver, 13.52% zinc, 3.87% copper, and 2.95% lead.
- Hole T17021 -- 6 meters @ 5.8% zinc, and 0.47% copper.
Silver Bull's project contains oxide mineralization and sulphide mineralization. The company previous exploration concentrated on the oxide portion; its 2015 Technical Report with a "NI 43-101 compliant measured and indicated "global" resource of 58.7 million tonnes grading 3.6% zinc and 50g/t silver at a $13.50 NSR cutoff giving 4.670 billion pounds of zinc and 90.8 million ounces of silver."
"Silver Bull's stock is already in an established uptrend and looks set to do very well indeed during silver's expected major bull market." -- Clive Maund
Within that resource the company noted that there is a "measured and indicated 'high grade zinc zone' within the Lerchs-Grossman (LG) Optimized Pit of 10.03 million tonnes with an average grade of 11% zinc at a 6% cutoff, giving 2.426 billion pounds of zinc, and a measured and indicated 'high grade silver zone' of 19 million tonnes with an average grade of 102.5g/t silver at a 50g/t cutoff giving 62.6 million ounces of silver."
Now the company believes that it is on to something much bigger.
Tim Barry, CEO of Silver Bull, noted that "the new sulphide zone is proving to be very productive for high grade sulphide mineralization." The just-released drill asssays targeted the "second of three steeply dipping, discreet structures we have identified in the sulphide zone. Drilling from the first structure announced in the previous news releases of holes T17001 to T17014 were dominated by high grade silver-copper sulphide mineralization grading up 1,300g/t silver and 6% copper."
"A second structure defined by holes T17010 and T17018 to T17022 is dominated by extremely high zinc sulphide mineralization, grading up to 48% zinc and suggests a metal zonation in the mineralization," Barry added.
Silver Bull has opened up silver workings to the west. Barry explained, "A recent Channel sampling program clearly shows the continuation of high grade mineralization towards the west. Our underground geological mapping of this area shows a number of high angle structures up to 2 meters wide containing sulphide mineralization grading up to 1,300 grams per ton silver, 42% zinc, 18% lead, and 13% copper that appear to feed into the overlying oxide zone. This will be the next target of our drill program in this area."
Silver Bull noted that it plans to deploy its Termite drill rig to "test the grade, thickness, and continuity of the sulphide mineralization identified by the channel sampling program."
That means the company will to continue to release drill results over the next weeks and months.
A number of industry observers have Silver Bull on their radar.
Technical analyst Clive Maund wrote on March 2 that Silver Bull Resources is "now at an excellent entry point. Coeur Mines finished selling its holdings in the stock a while back and the stock has been kept in check by some selling of warrants. However, the company announced a significant discovery last month."
On March 5, Maund wrote, "We have been accumulating Silver Bull this year on minor weakness because this is a stock that is already in an established uptrend and looks set to do very well indeed during silver's expected major bull market." He noted, "Silver Bull's latest 6-month chart looks very positive indeed, with the gentle reaction that has been going on for about 7 weeks now being a normal correction to the sharp run-up at the start of the year." Maund concluded that "Silver Bull is a strong buy here and holders should stay long."
Ron Struthers wrote in Struthers Resource Stock Report on Feb. 21, "Silver Bull came out with more strong drill results this morning. I believe the only reason the stock is so cheap is the recent weakness in the mining market and there were some warrants being exercised. There are still about 27 million warrants but most of these are from the 8 cent financing and do not expire until July 2019 so will not be any pressure on the stock price this year."
"The channel samples they have done in areas yet to be drilled are spectacular, mostly running 15% to 30% zinc with 100s of grams silver and some decent copper and lead grades too," Struthers stated.
Struthers added, "I would be accumulating this stock before it wakes up in the investment community. I would bet major mining companies already have an eye on this as these high grade sulphide zones keep getting bigger. Silver Bull can drill very inexpensively using their underground termite drill, probably around one-third the cost as typical above ground drilling with a contractor."
"Sooner or later the Bull is going to come back to the SilverBull stock price. The chart is a thing of beauty. A nice uptrend channel is in place and currently it is just above the 20 cents support area. An excellent time and price to buy," Struthers concluded.
Bob Moriarty of 321 Goldwrote in November, "Channel sample results released in late August showed silver as high as 1.13 kg per ton, 22% zinc, 3.26% lead and 12.8% copper. The in the ground value of that rock is $2284 and economic under any conditions. But channel samples don't trump drill core. A month ago Silver Bull began to release the numbers from the first underground drill program for this year showing 294 g/t silver and 0.96% copper over 25.5 meters. That's a still respectable $226 per ton in the ground."