Silver Mines Limited (ASX:SVL) has received encouraging high-grade assays from recent drilling at the Bowdens Silver Project near Mudgee in Central West New South Wales.
The company’s drill campaign is targeting high-grade mineralised zones for potential underground mining scenarios with results including:
- 3 metres at 679 g/t silver equivalent (678 g/t silver, 0.01% zinc and 0.03% lead) from 306 metres;
- 14 metres at 264 g/t silver equivalent from 322 metres; and
- 6.3 metres at 242 g/t silver equivalent from 227 metres.
The company has four drilling rigs on-site undertaking an expanded program of 30,000 metres of diamond drilling targeting high-grade veins and feeder zones outside the current open pit ore reserve.
Drilling program
Diamond drilling continues at the Northwest Zone, the Aegean Zone and the Bundarra Zone.
The Aegean to Northwest zone is dominated by high-grade silver vein systems comprising substantial widths, while Bundarra Zone is dominated by wide zinc, lead and gold-bearing veins with appreciable silver.
Results have been received for 10 holes, BD21015 through to BD21025, with most of these within the Northwest and Aegean zones.
Holes BD21015 and BD21017 were drilled to test for southern extensions to the Bundarra Zone towards BD21007.
One hole, BD21018, was drilled in the south of the deposit to investigate a gravity anomaly and highlights the potential to add to the current resources, notably, there is a close association of silver and gold at this location in the deposit.
Reported drill hole locations and underground mining targets at the Bowdens Silver Project.
Drilling results
The Northwest Zone starts about 30 metres below the base of the proposed Bowdens Silver open pit.
This zone is targeted for high-grade silver underground mining scenarios with continuation and connectivity to the Aegean Zone, with other strong results including:
- 9 metres at 211 g/t silver equivalent from 292 metres;
- 6 metres at 382 g/t silver equivalent from 191 metres and 1-metre at 835 g/t silver equivalent from 265 metres; and
- 5 metres at 237 g/t silver equivalent from 255 metres.
Drill holes BD21015 and BD21017 were drilled to test southern extents of the Bundarra Zone south of the semi-massive sulphide intersection, with BD21017 intersecting 3.0 metres at 278 g/t silver equivalent from 221 metres.
At Southern Pit, hole BD21018 has been completed to test an area of the deposit outside of the open pit mineral resource with results including 9.8 metres at 214 g/t silver equivalent from 39 metres and 4 metres at 343 g/t silver equivalent from 88 metres.
Looking south through the Aegean and Northwest High-Grade Zone with mineralisation continuity and new intercepts
Forward plan
Silver Mines have has four drilling rigs on-site undertaking an expanded program of 30,000 metres of diamond drilling.
Targets include high-grade veins and feeder zones outside of the current open pit ore reserve in the north, central and southern parts of the Bowdens Silver Deposit.
In the south of the deposit, for example, limited previous diamond drilling is available to inform an interpretation of vein orientations and textures and, as such, this is the area that will be tested to target higher-grade veins in the near surface.
The drilling to target resources beneath the current open pit ore reserve for underground mining scenarios will continue until at least the end of 2021.
Drilling will continue into 2022 with four diamond rigs to continue to test for system extensions to the Bowdens Silver Deposit.
About Bowdens
The consolidated project area comprises 2,007square kilometres of titles covering about 80 kilometres of strike of the highly mineralised Rylstone Volcanics.
Multiple target styles and mineral occurrences have potential throughout the district including analogues to Bowdens Silver, high-grade silver-lead-zinc epithermal and volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) systems and copper-gold targets.
Bowdens Silver is the largest undeveloped silver deposit in Australia with substantial resources and a considerable body of high-quality technical work already completed.