Coeur options project north of Silvertip

Alianza Minerals Ltd. Jan. 27 announced that Coeur Explorations Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Coeur Mining Inc., has signed an option agreement to explore the road-accessible Tim silver property in southern Yukon.

Situated just 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) north of Coeur Mining's Silvertip Mine in northern British Columbia, Tim is an early staged exploration property with similar high-grade silver-lead-zinc mineralization.

Following up on a letter of intent signed last June Coeur can earn an 80 percent interest in the Tim property by funding C$3.55 million in exploration over five years and paying C$575,000 to Alianza in scheduled cash payments over eight years. Coeur must also fund a feasibility study and notify Alianza of its intention to develop a commercial mine on the property on or before the eighth anniversary of receiving the primary permit needed to begin exploration.

"We are very pleased to have partnered with Coeur to advance the Tim Silver Property," said Alianza Minerals President and CEO Jason Weber. "Tim looks to be a Silvertip analog, and the Coeur team is an obvious choice to move the project forward. It will be a great advantage to have Coeur's geological expertise applied to the project."

Historical chip sampling from a trench cut across a zone of carbonate replacement mineralization at Tim returned 352 grams per metric ton silver and 9.1 percent lead across four meters. Similar mineralization was also reported in adjacent trenches 180 and 250 meters on either side of the central trench.

In 2013, Tarsis Resources Ltd., a predecessor to Alianza, completed a focused work program to re-evaluate this historical zone of silver- and lead-rich mineralization. This includes resampling of the central trench, which returned 365 g/t silver and 7.5 percent lead across a 3.7-meter channel sample.

The 2020 exploration program at Tim is expected to target high-grade silver-lead-zinc carbonate replacement mineralization, similar to that found at Coeur's Silvertip operation. Coeur's tentative exploration plans are in-line with those recently announced by Alianza, and will consist of detailed mapping, soil geochemical surveys and reopening the old trenches on the property.

–SHANE LASLEY