Equity Metals Corp has issued an updated resource estimate for its Silver Queen project in British Columbia, Canada, which lifted the indicated category by 187% and the inferred by 30% compared to a 2019 report.
The latest resource update uses a net smelter return (NSR) cut-off at C$100 per tonne with updated metals pricing, the company said.
Compared to the 2019 estimate, the new resource showed a 2.6 million tonnes (Mt) increase in the higher confidence indicated resource to 3.46Mt averaging 189 grams per ton (g/t) silver, 2.13g/t gold, 0.24% copper, 0.6% lead and 3.5% zinc for 21 million ounces of silver, 237,000 ounces of gold, 18 million pounds of copper, 48 million pounds of lead and 267 million pounds of zinc.
This equates to 62.8 million ounces silver-equivalent or 767,000 ounces of gold-equivalent.
In the inferred category, there was a 1.1Mt increase to 1.92Mt averaging 162g/t silver, 0.80g/t gold, 0.23% copper, 0.5% lead and 2% zinc, containing 10.3 million ounces silver, 50,000 ounces of gold, 10 million pounds of copper; 23 million pounds of lead, and 84 million pounds of zinc.
This equates to 22.5 million ounces of silver-equivalent or 273,000 ounces of gold-equivalent.
READ: Equity Metals finds bonanza-grade mineralization in three drill holes at Silver Queen BC property
"At the time we assumed management of the company in Q3 of 2019, we felt there were clear opportunities to quickly add significantly to the 2019 MRE at Silver Queen, and we are proud to report our success at a very low cost of $0.15/oz of added AgEq or $11/oz of added AuEq," said the company's president Joe Kizis in a statement.
"The MRE remains open for additional delineation west of the Camp target and within the Sveinson target. In addition, there are several targets that have only been tested by a few drill holes and remain very attractive areas for new discoveries and MRE increase," he added.
The latest report features lateral and down-dip extensions of the previously modelled No. 3 and NG-3 Veins, originally included in the 2019 document as well as new, previously unmodelled mineralization from the Camp and Sveinson targets, said Equity.
Notably, around 64% of the resources are classified as indicated on a per tonnage basis and 74% of the total on a silver-equivalent basis, reflecting the overall higher average grade (565g/t silver-equivalent) of the resource in the indicated category.
The updated resource estimate incorporates an additional 25,659m of core drilling completed in 2020-22 and updated metal recoveries and pricing.
Equity Metals is a Manex Resource group company, which provides exploration, administration, and corporate development services for Equity Metals' two major mineral properties - the Silver Queen gold-silver-zinc-copper project in central B.C, and the Monument Diamond project, located in Lac De Gras, Northwest Territories.
The Silver Queen asset spans 45 claims, 17 crown grants, and two surface crown grants totaling 18,852 hectares, with no underlying royalties. Mineralization is hosted by a series of epithermal veins distributed over a 6 sq km area.
Contact the writer a giles@proactiveinvestors.com