The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - December 18, 2024
Snow falls at Silvertip, a silver-zinc-lead mine project in Northern British Columbia that also has the potential to produce critical minerals such as gallium and indium.
Coeur drill 34 underground and 14 surface holes during its 2024 drill program at Silvertip.
Surface drilling has significantly extended the strike of the Southern Silver Zone.
Coeur Mining Inc. Dec. 18 reported that the 20,827-meter drill program carried out at Silvertip this year has more than doubled the strike length of the Southern Silver Zone deposit at this advanced-stage exploration project in Northern British Columbia.
Silvertip had just begun operations when Coeur bought the project in 2017. The company, however, decided to wind down operations in 2020 in order to evaluate the larger potential of this silver-enriched carbonate replacement deposit (CRD) project near B.C.'s northern border with the Yukon.
In mid-2023, Coeur launched a 1.5-year exploration campaign at Silvertip focused on expanding the resource and exploring the wider potential across the Northern B.C. property.
Going into 2024, Silvertip hosted 7.15 million tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 8.06 ounces per ton (57.7 million oz) silver, 10.6% (1.52 million lb) zinc, and 5.37% (768.7 million lb) lead; plus 2.35 million tons of inferred resource averaging 6.9 oz/t (16.1 million oz) silver, 10.9% (481.8 million lb) zinc, and 4.26% (199.8million lb) lead.
Coeur's $12 million exploration program at Silvertip this year had three primary objectives:
• Expand the resources within the Southern Silver Zone along strike with drilling from underground.
• Increase the deposit's footprint with large step-out holes drilled on surface.
• Carry out district-scale exploration to identify other structures similar to deposits outlined so far at Silvertip with potential to host large ore bodies.
Coeur drill 34 underground and 14 surface holes during its 2024 drill program at Silvertip.
The company reports that it achieved all three of the 2024 Silvertip exploration goals.
"Silvertip's three-pronged 2024 exploration strategy successfully expanded known areas of mineralization doubled the strike length of the Southern Silver Zone to over 2,000 meters, and identified three new large targets located on our over 50,000-hectare (over 125,000 acre) land package," said Coeur Mining Chairman and CEO Mitchell Krebs.
The 34 underground holes drilled at Silvertip this year extended the Southern Silver Zone by about 350 meters and the Saddle Zone by about 85 meters. Highlights from the first five underground holes drilled this year include:
• 5.8 meters averaging 123.7 grams per metric ton (3.61 oz/t) silver, 1.8% zinc, and 20% lead in hole 65Z23-485-012-029 (Southern Silver Zone).
• 4.2 meters averaging 361.1 g/t (10.53 oz/t) silver, 5.8% zinc, and 6.7% lead in hole SDZ23-485-013-017 (Saddle Zone).
• 4.5 meters averaging 794.2 g/t (23.17 oz/t) silver, 12.3% zinc, and 14.6% lead in hole 65Z23-485-012-031(Southern Silver Zone).
Coeur says five large step-out holes drilled from surface cut significant massive sulfide mineralization up to 1,000 meters beyond the current Southern Silver Zone resource. The company has received results from the first two of these holes:
• 5.4 meters averaging 119.1 g/t (3.47 oz/t) silver, 8.9% zinc, and 2.8% lead in hole SSZ24-Pad34-001.
• Eight meters averaging 197.5 g/t (5.76 oz/t) silver, 3.9% zinc, and 2.9% lead in hole SSZ24-Pad34-002.
Surface drilling has significantly extended the strike of the Southern Silver Zone.
Coeur also reported higher copper, gold, tin, gallium, and indium values in these holes, indicating that the drilling is tracing the mineralization closer to the heat source for the hydrothermal fluids that mineralized the CRD deposit.
A property-wide exploration included geophysical surveys, mapping, and sampling. The company says this reconnaissance program identified three high-priority targets with geological similarities to the Silvertip deposits.
"Our district-scale evaluation, including geophysical surveys plus stream and soil geochemical surveys, have set the groundwork for upcoming field programs and are already providing an enhanced understanding of regional geology and structure, in addition to the recognition of new possible mineralization centers," said Coeur Mining Senior Vice President of Exploration Aoife McGrath.
Following the success of its district-scale exploration, Coeur optioned a roughly 24,700-acre land package adjacent to Silvertip from CMC Metals Ltd.
In addition to silver, zinc, and lead, Coeur believes Silvertip has the potential to be a significant source of critical minerals like gallium, indium, and tin.
"We anticipate continued exploration success in 2025 as we seek to expand the size and enhance our knowledge of this world-class deposit," said Krebbs. "We remain enthusiastic about Silvertip's potential to become a future high-quality source of growth for the Company and an important future source of Canadian-based critical minerals."
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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