The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - August 23, 2024
Native silver and argentite (silver sulfide mineral) in core from an 8.1-meter section of hole DV24-412 that averaged 725 g/t silver.
Dolly Varden drilled three daughters off mother hole DV24-404 to test down-plunge extensions of the Wolf Vein.
Dolly Varden Silver Corp. Aug. 22 announced that drills continue to cut high-grade silver mineralization below the Wolf deposit on the company's Kitsault Valley project in Northern British Columbia.
Lying about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of Stewart, B.C., Kitsault Valley is the amalgamation of the Dolly Varden silver and Homestake Ridge gold-silver properties.
Four deposits on the Dolly Varden end of Kitsault Valley – Dolly Varden, Torbrit, North Star, and Wolf – host 3.42 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 299.8 grams per metric ton (32.93 million ounces) silver; plus 1.29 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 277 g/t (11.45 million oz) silver.
Wolf, the northernmost Dolly Varden deposit and a primary target of 2024 drilling, currently hosts 402,000 metric tons of indicated resource averaging 297 g/t (3.8 million oz) silver. Drilling, however, continues to trace silver mineralization to depth and toward Torbrit, which hosts 2.62 million tons of 297 g/t (25 million oz) silver.
Homestake Ridge, which lies 5.4 kilometers (3.4 miles) northwest of Wolf, hosts three deposits – Homestake Main, Homestake Silver, and South Reef – with 736,000 metric tons of indicated resource averaging 7.02 g/t (165,993 oz) gold and 74.8 g/t (1.8 million oz) silver; plus 5.55 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 4.58 g/t (816,719 oz) gold and 100 g/t (17.8 million oz) silver.
Earlier this month, Dolly Varden reported that hole DV24-404 cut 9.38 meters averaging 1,091 g/t silver, 1.4% zinc, and 1.35% lead roughly 40 meters below the previously outlined Wolf Vein mineralized zone.
With the deep extension area of Wolf Vein being more than 500 meters below the surface and requiring holes of nearly 800 meters to encounter the vein at the correct orientation, Dolly Varden decided to use DV24-404 as a "mother hole" for directional drilling to precisely target Wolf at depth.
The latest batch of assays are from three "daughter holes" that were directed off DV24-404. Highlights from these holes include:
• 16.2 meters averaging 606 g/t silver, 1.43% zinc, and 0.61% lead in hole DV24-412.
• 3.77 meters averaging 771 g/t silver, 2.29% zinc, and 2.93% lead in hole DV24-414.
"The strength of mineralization including strong native silver and pyrargyrite plus strong, accessory base metals appear to be increasing to the southwest as we vector towards a key structural intersection point," said Dolly Varden Silver CEO Shawn Khunkhun. "These holes, oriented by directional drilling, show excellent continuity of the high grades at the Wolf Vein."
Dolly Varden drilled three daughters off mother hole DV24-404 to test down-plunge extensions of the Wolf Vein.
Dolly Varden says the wide silver intersection in hole DV24-412, which is 31 meters below hole DV24-404, and that the vertical extent of the plunging high-grade zone is consistent at depth."
Hole DV24-414, which intercepted Wolf Vein approximately 65 meters below and northeast of DV24-404, cut 15.02 meters of vein breccias that had a mix of low grade and high-grade mineralization averaging 254 g/t silver, 1.34% zinc, and 0.86% lead.
Another daughter hole, DV24-409 cut the Wolf mineralized zone about 75 meters below the deepest 2023 hole. This most southwestern hole drilled at Wolf so far cut 2.72 meters averaging 4.21 g/t silver within a 10.32-meter zone of various vein as vein breccias.
Given the success so far, roughly 8,000 meters of Dolly Varden's ongoing 25,000-meter drill program at Kitsault Valley this year is focused on expanding and infilling the plunge of high-grade silver mineralization at Wolf Vein.
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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