Pinnacle Silver & Gold Corp (TSX-V:PINN, OTCQB:PSGCF, FRA:P9J) earlier this week provided an update on underground drilling at the Pinos Cuates mine, where the company has extended a high-grade gold zone and gathered further information about the continuity of mineralization.
CEO Robert Archer told Proactive that the underground drilling program, which began several months ago, had been generating detailed information on the deposit. He said the project had never previously been drilled and that the company had opted to start underground while it waited for permits for its planned surface program.
Archer said the underground program was helping Pinnacle Silver and Gold understand what the mineralization looked like, as well as the continuity of grade. He described this information as crucial for mine planning and determining how best to approach the deposit.
The latest work also demonstrated the particular advantages of drilling from existing underground workings. Archer explained that previously released Hole 35 was drilled horizontally, while Hole 68 was drilled from the level below in an up-dip direction.
This approach allowed the company to gather information along the vein, rather than only across it as would typically be achieved with surface drilling.
Archer said resource estimation based on separate intersections could effectively involve “connecting the dots” between different points without directly establishing what occurred between them.
“It’s the closeness of those dots that ultimately decides the confidence of the resource, whether it’s inferred or indicated, measured, whatever it might be,” Archer said.
He added that drilling directly along the vein provided continuous information, describing the results generated by the approach as “very, very positive”.
Further drilling represents a key potential catalyst for Pinnacle Silver and Gold. Archer said only a limited number of holes remained to be drilled at Pinos Cuates before the underground program moved next door to the Dos de Mayo mine.
Another potential catalyst is the planned transition to surface drilling. Pinnacle Silver and Gold is currently waiting for the necessary permits to commence that program and intends to continue drilling underground in the interim.
Archer said drilling would therefore remain ongoing, first underground at Pinos Cuates and Dos de Mayo and subsequently from surface once permits were received.
