Arizona Silver Exploration Inc (CVE:AZS) (OTCMKTS:AZASF) announced further drill results from its Philadelphia project that included a surprising find at the Arizona deposit.
A gold-silver vein system, drilling at Philadelphia is primarily focused on defining a precious metal resource. Recent results from the project, however, showed the presence of rare earth element beryllium, which, thanks to its rigidity and thermal stability, is commonly used in aerospace manufacturing.
All six drill holes returned contained very high levels of beryllium, Arizona Silver reported. “Beryllium values of this magnitude are uncharacteristic of epithermal precious metal systems, where beryllium is generally on the order of one to ten parts per million,” the company said in a statement. “Beryllium will be tracked and modelled as an accompanying metal to gold and silver at the Philadelphia property.”
READ: Arizona Silver hits high grades with first three holes at Philadelphia property
Highlights of the precious metal results included 13.7 metres grading 1.14 grams per ton (g/t) gold and 41.1 g/t silver, 15.2 metres grading 1.1 g/t gold and 17.1 g/t silver and 9.2 metres grading 1 g/t gold and 17.4 g/t silver from three holes.
The Vancouver-based junior explorer recently reported an additional three holes that hit high grades, such as 3 metres grading 15.8 g/t gold and 90 g/t silver, which was drilled to hit the target below shallow underground workings off the Philadelphia No 1 shaft, sunk in the early 1900s.
The Philadelphia property was discovered in the late 1800s and operated intermittently, mainly between 1917 and 1935, as a 50-tonne-per-day underground mine.
Philadelphia’s past production ranged from 10 to 27 g/t, according to Arizona Silver, with historic silver grades in the production shaft averaging 420 g/t silver.
Shares of Arizona Silver traded at C$0.14 in Toronto on Tuesday morning and US$0.11 on OTC markets.
Contact Angela at angela@proactiveinvestors.com
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