Arizona Gold & Silver Inc (TSX-V:AZS, OTCQB:AZASF) announced its plan to advance the Silverton gold-antimony project in Nevada.
The precious metals-focused exploration company said it has submitted a Notice of Intent (NOI) to the US Bureau of land Management to drill 27 reverse circulation drill holes from 17 drill pads and build an associated access road.
Arizona Gold & Silver noted that 24 of the proposed holes will test the quartz-antimony veins and three holes will test the nearby magnetotellurics (MT) anomaly that was detected and quantified by a helicopter MT survey over the property in May and June 2023.
The company said the potential is high for a near-surface deposit of antimony, composed of high-grade veins such as what was hit in historic hole S-18 and surrounding stockwork of antimony veinlets.
Antimony is currently trading at US$57.50 per pound and has been designated a critical mineral by the US government for defense purposes. So, Arizona Gold & Silver said it has begun to reassess the antimony occurrences on the Silverton property.
These have been known for some time, but were previously considered a trace metal signature only of a deeper and blind primary gold occurrence.
The company added that the Silverton property database contains multi-element geochemistry from over 2000 rock samples collected primarily by previous companies, of which more than 25 surface samples contain greater than 1% antimony.
Arizona Gold & Silver also announced it will entertain joint venture proposals to test the antimony-gold and MT targets in order for the company to focus on the advancement of its high-grade Philadelphia gold project in Arizona.