Silver Mines Ltd has kicked off a 2,000-metre diamond drilling program at the Bowdens Silver Project, with the goal of collecting both PQ (85.0 mm diameter) and HQ (63.5 mm diameter) core samples to cover the first 10 years of production.
This “Geo-Met” drilling program is designed to produce concentrate samples for potential offtake partners, as well as data to inform transportation certification and tailings processing optimisation.
The drilling will primarily focus on the Main Zone (north and south), where the company believes there is material potential to extend the ore reserve estimate at depth, below the existing resource boundary.
The program will therefore also test below the current reserve pit mine design, offering further insights for SVL’s modelling.
Potential for ore reserve increase
“With the release of the mineral resource and ore reserve estimates in December 2024, and in conjunction with the optimisation study, the company is now advancing final mine designs and product specifications,” Silver Mines managing director Jo Battershill said.
“This program will provide invaluable information for potential off-take partners and the final tailings analysis.
“It is always exciting to return to drilling at the Bowdens Silver Project, and we are keen to take advantage of this Geo-Met Program to further test areas of the mineral resource that we believe could be converted to ore reserves with minimal additional drilling.
“The target area already contains high-grade hits and could potentially extend the open pit design by an additional depth of 50 metres over a strike length of around 500 metres.”
Previous drilling recorded high-grade silver hits in this area, including:
- 3 metres at 286 g/t silver, 0.44% zinc and 0.25% lead from 189.6 metres of depth;
- 3.2 metres at 143 g/t silver, 0.99 g/t gold, 10.39% zinc and 3.5% lead from 240 metres; and,
- 5 metres at 60 g/t silver, 1.27 g/t gold, 2.93% zinc and 1.63% lead from 222.8 metres.
Long section of the current reserve pit boundary and target area below:
Targeting mine life extensions
“Simple geometric calculations demonstrate this could extend the mine life well beyond the current 16 and a half years,” Battershill continued.
“It has been pleasing to see that when infill drilling areas of historically lower drill hole density at Bowdens, the increased data has a strong track record of improving continuity and demonstrating the potential for improving resource grades.
“The Bowdens Silver Project remains one of the most advanced silver development projects on the ASX.
“When combined with the project’s tier one jurisdiction, we believe Silver Mines represents a compelling opportunity within the global silver sector.”
SVL says the core from the program will be thoroughly analysed with a range of mechanical, spectral and metallurgical methods.
They will include scanning by Hylogger 4 through the NSW Minerals System Team (MEG) – the test work program is designed to provide a consistent, world-class dataset to inform final design and mine planning decisions for Bowdens.