The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2020 - Published January 19, 2021
A geologist collects samples from the wall of one of the historic underground mines on the Dolly Varden silver property in Northern British Columbia.
A more than 10,000-meter drill program focused on exploring new zones of high-grade silver and expanding the resources already outlined was the centerpiece of Dolly Varden Silver Corp.'s 2020 exploration across its namesake property south of Stewart, British Columbia.
The roughly 8,800-hectare (21,745 acres) Dolly Varden property covers four historic mines that produced more than 19 million ounces of silver over four decades beginning in 1919.
Four deposits associated with these historic mines – Torbrit, Dolly Varden, Wolf and North Star – host 3.42 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 299.8 grams per metric ton (32.93 million oz) silver; plus 1.29 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 277 g/t (11.48 million oz) silver.
The bulk of these resources are found at Torbrit, which hosts 2.62 million metric tons of the indicated resource averaging 297 g/t (25.03 million oz) silver; and 1.19 million metric tons of the inferred resource averaging 278 g/t (10.59 million oz) silver.
The 2020 drill program initially focused on expansion of the resources at the past producing Torbrit Mine.
Highlights from Torbrit step-out drilling include 12.75 meters averaging 351 g/t silver, including 2.7 meters of 1,083 g/t silver in hole DV20-211; and 37.5 meters of 135 g/t silver, including one meter of 906 g/t silver in DV20-213.
DV20-217, a Torbrit infill hole, cut 31.95 meters averaging 302 g/t silver, including a four-meter subsection averaging 642 g/t silver.
While drills tested Torbrit expansion targets, Dolly Varden's newly assembled technical team finalized regional exploration targets for the main thrust of the drilling.
"Multiple silver-rich mineralizing systems, deposits and past-producing mines present many target options for exploration at Dolly Varden," said Dolly Varden Silver President and CEO Shawn Khunkhun.
Most of this new target drilling was carried out along the more than 4,500-meter-long Torbit trend, a silver-rich alteration belt that extends north from the Torbrit Mine, over the Wolf Mine, onward to the Chance and Ace-Galena showings.
One of the most exciting prospects is Chance, a target about 4,000 meters north of Torbrit. One hole drilled at Chance in 2019 cut 26.5 meters averaging 385.4 g/t silver, including five meters of 1,606.5 g/t silver.
Dolly Varden's 2020 program was originally financed with support from Eric Sprott and Hecla Mining Company, which participated in two private placement financings that raised C$7.68 million.
Hecla, which originally invested in Dolly Varden in 2012, has rights to maintain its roughly 11% interest in the company. Exercising these rights, the North American silver miner acquired 1.3 million Dolly Varden shares at C33 cents and 1.1 million shares at C40 cents during two financings that closed in June.
Hecla and Sprott participated in a C$10 million Dolly Varden financing completed in August and Hecla participated in a C$7 million financing that closed in November.
As a result of his participation in these private placements, Sprott now owns roughly 19% interest in Dolly Varden and Hecla owns about an 11% stake in the Northern BC silver exploration company.
CORRECTION: The size of the Dolly Varden property has been corrected to 8,800 hectares.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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