Silver Bullet Mines Corp. (TSX-V:SBMI, OTC:SBMCF) said it has received the assay results that confirm the presence of anomalous platinum group elements (PGE) values in some of the material at its Buckeye Mine in Arizona’s Richmond Basin Mining District.
The resource junior said the ‘check assays’ from third-party independent, accredited American Assay Laboratories are for material tested and reported in September and October 2022. A total of six samples, six duplicates, four standards and one blank sample were assayed, it added.
The samples, including the blank and standards, were collected by the mine crew from various material at the Buckeye Mine and were crushed and ground to a powder at the company's assay lab with the powder retained in marked sample bags. A portion of each of these bags was retained and a portion was inserted in another labelled bag and then delivered by a courier in Globe, Arizona to American Assay Laboratories in Nevada, the company explained.
Silver Bullet noted that American Assay Laboratories used a similar assay finish procedure as the first lab, Lone Pine, namely ICP-MS (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry). Lone Pine used a 4-acid dissolution of a 200-milligram sample and American Assay Laboratories used a sodium peroxide fusion of a 5-gram sample.
To further confirm the presence of platinum, the company said a repeat Fire Assay was undertaken. For this method, the sample was fused in a ceramic crucible with litharge, sodium carbonate, borax and flour at 1,080° Celsius. From this, a 25-50 gram lead button was cupelled in a magnesite cupel at 900° for 60 minutes. The silver bead was then parted with concentrated nitric acid followed by hydrochloric acid to generate chlorine and nitrosoyl chloride that dissolved the PGM sponge. Digested samples were read on an ICP-AES (inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy).
The PGE results obtained from American Assay Laboratories were in line with a 1995 historic report and that of Lone Pine, the company said, adding that American Assay Laboratories assayed for silver, gold, iridium, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhodium and ruthenium.
“Based on these results the company plans to continue its evaluation of the economic potential of PGE on the Buckeye Mine,” Silver Bullet said in a statement.
“Samples within the Buckeye Mine upper adit hydrothermal vein system are in the process of being sent to Dr A Macdonald at Laurentian University for further analysis, and a selective sampling program is to be initiated. Further testing will be done using ICP-MS as well as NAA (nuclear activation analysis) when warranted.”
Directorate changes
Silver Bullet also announced that due to time commitments on other projects, J Birks Bovaird has resigned from its board of directors and thanked him for his “tireless commitment to the shareholders”.
It said John S MacKenzie, the chief financial officer (CFO) and a founding shareholder of Critical Minerals Americas, a private exploration stage mining company in Alberta, has been appointed to its board and will also serve as the board's chair.
The company noted that MacKenzie is CFO and a founding shareholder of Evergreen Environmental, engaged in the anaerobic digestion of organic waste and production and sales of renewable natural gas (RNG).
MacKenzie was previously CEO of the international heavy jet cargo airline AllCanada Express (ACE) for 13 years and has since occupied both C-Suite and consulting positions with various mining, aviation, and technology companies. He has extensive financing, lease, purchase and sales experience over dozens of transactions and hundreds of millions of dollars of equipment. MacKenzie also has 10 years of public accounting experience with Clarkson Gordon/Ernst & Young, Silver Bullet said.
Silver Bullet Mines has projects in the western US. The company’s flagship Black Diamond project is in Gila County, Arizona in the Miami-Globe copper camp and is centered on the Richmond Basin. The property covers nearly 5,000 acres and is host to several past-producing underground primary silver mines.
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com