Flat vein could add major silver to Porter

StrikePoint Gold Inc. Nov. 12 announced the discovery of a significant new vein that has the potential to significantly add to the high-grade silver resource at the company's Porter silver project just outside of Stewart, British Columbia.

The Porter property hosts three historic silver mines that date back to the early 20th Century – Silverado, which is on the Stewart side of Mount Rainy; Porter-Idaho, located on the opposite side of the mountain about 2,000 meters southeast of Silverado; and Melvin adit, a small historical mine opening about 1,000 meters north of Porter.

According to a resource estimate prepared in 2012, this past producing property hosts 394,700 metric tons of indicated resource averaging 868 g/t silver (11 million oz) silver, 3.37 percent lead and 1.41 percent zinc; plus 88,900 metric tons of inferred resources grading 595 g/t (1.7 million oz) silver.

Most of this resource is found around the historical Porter Mine workings, with most of the rest in the immediate Silverado Mine area. Strikepoint believes the vertical veins that host this resource on either side of Mount Rainy connect but were historically masked by a perennial blanket of snow.

Much of this snow cap has subsided providing new ground for geologists to scour, which led to the discovery of Flat vein about 800 meters west of the historical Porter Resource. The company collected 32 samples along 275 meters of the Flat vein that was identified. These samples returned grades as high as 43.6 ounces per metric ton silver, 0.54 oz/t gold and 28.8 percent zinc.

Strikepoint said the newly discovered Flat vein ranges from 30 centimeters to 1 meter thick, but the silver and gold mineralization extends into the brecciated and altered halo around the contact sometimes for several meters.

Several other "flat veins" were identified this summer, including areas near the Silverado and Porter mines. A preliminary interpretation is that these segments of veins identified so far connect, forming one large structure that circles and cuts through Mount Rainey. The angles the veins dip at suggest that they converge and form a 'bowl' shaped fault that passes under the entire mountain.

"This is one of the most exciting discoveries following this seasons exploration work as it helps prove the existence of significant, untested mineral veins outside of the historical resource area," said StrikePoint Gold CEO Shawn Khunkhun. "Our mandate was to prove upside for the deposit, and this discovery is a major step towards that goal."

A thin patch of ice covers a roughly 650-meter area between where flat veins were sampled earlier this year in the Porter resource area and where the new Flat vein was discovered.

This new vein, including the area obscured by ice, is a primary target for drill testing in 2019.

–SHANE LASLEY