Silver Mines Ltd (ASX:SVL) continues to enhance the gold prospectivity of the Bowdens Silver Project in Central West New South Wales with the footprint of the Southern Gold Zone expanded to 300 metres in strike, 200 metres width and between 15 to 85 metres in thickness.
Following the release last September of a maiden underground resource of 42.9 million ounces of silver equivalent, which included gold for the first time, exploration has shifted to testing extensions of mineralisation outside the current planned open-cut pit design.
This work targeting potential extensions including in the north at Main, Aegean and Northwest zones and south of the planned open-cut pit has also been testing for higher grades within the pit design.
New assays
Assay results have been received from continued diamond drilling around the Bowdens Silver Deposit and from a re-assay program of historic drill pulp samples for gold.
Diamond hole BD22042 returned 99 metres at 1.15 g/t gold equivalent (0.62 g/t gold, 10 g/t silver, 0.35% lead and 0.39% zinc) from 159 metres, including 27 metres at 3.13 g/t gold equivalent (1.95 g/t gold, 24 g/t silver, 0.80% lead and 0.83% zinc) from 167 metres.
Hole BD22024 returned 82.7 metres at 0.89 g/t gold equivalent (0.25 g/t gold, 44 g/t silver and 0.10% zinc) from 8 metres including 8 metres at 2.5 g/t gold equivalent from 34 metres and 5.1 metres at 3.0 g/t gold equivalent from 81 metres.
Re-assays
Meanwhile, assaying of historic drill samples for gold in the Southern Gold Zone returned:
- BRC12095 - 29 metres at 0.42 g/t gold and 15 metres at 0.52 g/t;
- BRC12093 - 17 metres at 0.48 g/t;
- BRC12050 - 14 metres at 0.53 g/t;
- BRC12092 - 9 metres at 0.81 g/t; and
- BRC12064 - 7 metres at 1.03 g/t.
Most of the historic holes reassayed are shallow vertical RC holes, with recent diamond drilling showing gold mineralisation extends beyond the depths of the RC drilling.
Reported historic drill hole locations for gold assay program at the Southern Gold Zone at the Bowdens Silver Project.
Assessing Southern Gold Zone
The Southern Gold Zone is now defined from near the surface in the south of the Bowdens Silver Project and is an extension to the ore reserve and outside the planned open-cut pit.
Gold has been predominantly been previously identified within the Bundarra Zone which is directly underneath the planned open-cut pit. It was also discovered in 2021 at shallow depths in the south and adjoining the Bowdens Silver Deposit, along with high grades of silver mineralisation.
This area, the Southern Gold Zone, has become an additional target for gold and silver exploration drilling during 2022.
The zone, which is from near the surface in the south of Bowdens and outside the currently planned open-cut pit, will be assessed in future pit optimisation studies.
Drilling continues
SVL’s diamond drilling program continues with two rigs on site while the company will carry out stage two of the gold assay program on historic holes, including another 3,300 metres of holes within, and outside this zone as well.
There are 15,000 metres ongoing at the Bowdens Silver Deposit and 3,000 metres of regional exploration drilling.
Targets at Bowdens Deposit include shallow (within 200 metres) extensions to mineralisation in the north, south and west of the deposit, extensions to the underground mineral resource estimate (below 200 metres) where it remains open, as well as extensions to the open-cut mineral resources.
About Bowdens
Bowdens Silver Project is about 26 kilometres east of the town of Mudgee with the consolidated project area comprising 2,007 square kilometres of titles covering around 80 kilometres of strike of the highly mineralised Rylstone Volcanics.
Multiple target styles and mineral occurrences have potential throughout the district including analogues to Bowdens silver, high-grade silver-lead-zinc epithermal and volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) systems and copper-gold targets.
Bowdens is the largest undeveloped silver deposit in Australia with substantial resources and a considerable body of high-quality technical work already completed. The project boasts plentiful logistics for future mine development.