Diamond drilling at Silver Mines Ltd (ASX:SVL, OTC:SLVMF)'s Bowdens Silver Deposit in central New South Wales has returned the best mineralised intercept recorded at the project since its discovery in 1989.
A 13-hole geo-metallurgical and geotechnical diamond drilling program, completed earlier this year for 2,225.8 metres, was designed to sample ore from the first 10 years of planned production and to test mineralisation both within the current Resource and below the base of the existing Ore Reserve open pit design.
Standout results came from drilling in the Main Zone, where several holes intersected multiple high-grade silver structures over substantial widths.
The headline intercept was delivered by hole BD25007, which returned 116 metres at 245 g/t silver, 0.48% lead and 0.29% zinc from 75 metres depth, for a total of 28,378 gram-metres silver. This broad zone includes 28 metres at 185 g/t silver, 0.46% lead and 0.24% zinc, as well as a particularly rich 35-metre interval grading 412 g/t silver, 0.79% lead and 0.35% zinc.
On a gram-metres basis, the BD25007 intercept is about 8,000 gram-metres silver stronger than the previous best hole at Bowdens, BGR312, which was drilled in 2003 and returned 145 metres at 144 g/t silver, 0.33% lead and 0.17% zinc (20,848 gram-metres silver).
Core from significantly silver mineralised intercept from 161m to 165m in BD25007.
Additional strong results were reported from holes BD25005 and BD25006. BD25006 intersected 34 metres at 339 g/t silver, 0.70% lead and 0.82% zinc from 47 metres (11,526 gram-metres silver), including 2 metres at 730 g/t silver, 2.14% lead and 1.99% zinc and 17 metres at 570 g/t silver, 1.05% lead and 1.06% zinc. BD25005 returned 57 metres at 189 g/t silver, 0.50% lead and 0.27% zinc from 84 metres (10,790 gram-metres silver), including a higher-grade interval of 34 metres at 299 g/t silver, 0.78% lead and 0.33% zinc.
Drill hole locations and significant intercepts and Optimised Pit design.
“It’s quite unbelievable that even after 36 years of exploration, resource, infill and extensional drilling at the Bowdens Silver Deposit, we have just drilled the largest-ever silver mineralised intercept at this incredible deposit,” Silver Mines managing director Jo Battershill said.
“These results are validation of the quality of the Bowdens Silver Deposit and of the hard work and targeting the technical team have undertaken to deliver this program.
‘With the release of the Mineral Resource and Ore Reserve Estimates in December 2024, and in conjunction with the Optimisation Study, the company is well advanced in final mine designs and product specifications. This program will provide invaluable information for potential off-take partners and the final tailings analysis.
Substantial high-grade zones
The program also probed mineralisation beneath the current pit design. Hole BD25008, drilled from surface, cut 58 metres at 121 g/t silver, 0.27% lead and 0.39% zinc (6,997 gram-metres silver), with 28 metres of this intercept lying below the current Ore Reserve. These results collectively confirm the presence of substantial high-grade zones within the planned mining area and point to additional mineralisation at depth.
With the latest assays in hand, Silver Mines plans to shift its drilling focus to infill and extensions of high-grade mineralisation within the Bowdens Silver Deposit and along adjacent and parallel mineralised structures.
“In an environment of record silver and gold prices, Bowdens is incredibly well positioned within the global silver sector — and it is very pleasing to be able to release such spectacular drilling results. The team will now return to designing additional drilling programs to target higher-grade areas both within the current resource and in adjacent structures to the Bowdens Silver Deposit.
“The Bowdens Silver Project remains one of the most advanced silver development projects both on the ASX and globally. When combined with the project’s tier one jurisdiction and recent American project acquisitions, we believe Silver Mines represents a compelling opportunity within the global silver sector.”
What’s next?
The current program focused on geometallurgical and geotechnical sampling and was not designed to specifically test high-grade mineralisation. Taken together with the relatively small scale of the program, the results are encouraging as the company prepares for detailed infill and extension drilling in 2026.
Bowdens Silver Deposit long section showing all drilling and intercepts for the Main Zone and Main Zone South areas.
About Bowdens
The Bowdens Silver Project is in central New South Wales, about 26 kilometres east of Mudgee. The consolidated project area covers 2,115 square kilometres (521,000 acres) of tenure along roughly 80 kilometres of strike within the highly mineralised Rylstone Volcanics.
The district hosts multiple target styles and mineral occurrences, including Bowdens-style silver mineralisation, high-grade silver-lead-zinc epithermal and volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) systems, and copper-gold targets.
Bowdens Silver is regarded as the largest undeveloped silver deposit in Australia, with substantial defined resources, an extensive body of technical work and strong logistics to support potential mine development.