Recent geo-political instability and inflationary pressures have ignited investor interest in precious metals and other hard assets. This bodes well for resource companies, especially the juniors, which are most leveraged to upside in the underlying commodity price.
Canadian company Nevada Silver Corporation (TSX-V:NSC) is well-positioned to benefit from this investment trend, with 100% ownership of its principal asset, the Corcoran silver-gold project in Nevada, as well as the Emily manganese project in Minnesota.
Corcoran has mineralization near-surface, is open in all directions, and has an Inferred Mineral Resource of 33.5 million silver-equivalent ounces. The Emily project, meanwhile, contains North America’s highest-grade verified NI 43-101 manganese resource, and has been the subject of considerable technical studies, with US$24 million invested to date.
Nevada Silver CEO Gary Lewis has more than 30 years of capital markets, business and strategy development experience, having founded, invested and operated resource projects or assets valued at more than US$400 million.
In an interview, Lewis tells Proactive how the company plans to further develop its advanced silver and manganese assets and boost shareholder value.
Proactive: What are your plans to bring the historic Belmont workings back into production?
Gary Lewis: There has been no significant evaluation or exploration of these old mines since they closed more than a hundred years ago. Nevada Silver Corp (NSC) is neither seeking to re-enter the old underground workings nor continue mining any remaining ore in the old mines. Rather, NSC intends to investigate the down-dip and along-trend potential for mineralization that was either not known to the miners, outside their mine lease areas, or extended to depths below the water table, which were not feasible to mine during the 1860s.
NSC exploration will include geophysical (IP) ground traverses across the 3-4 main ore zones with coverage aimed to locate sulphide targets at depth, along trend and under alluvial cover to the south. Priority anomalies generated will be drill tested. Particular focus will be on drilling down-dip/beneath the main ore horizons, which trend northwest and dip about 40 degrees east. Deepest recorded workings are at about 150 meters (m) deep but most ore was mined above 100m in very high-grade, supergene-enriched ore dominated by silver chloride. NSC plans to test silver targets in the sulphide zone down-dip of the ore horizons, where silver and base metal sulphides within quartz gangue were described by miners.
Like Corcoran, there is no reason that the high-grade silver at Belmont shouldn’t extend to considerable depths and it could provide an excellent underground mine target.
How do these new Belmont projects relate to the development of Nevada Silver’s Corcoran silver-gold project?
The Belmont silver deposits are a very different type than Corcoran. Older (Palaeozoic) host rocks consist of dark grey calcareous siltstones compared with younger rhyolitic tuffs at Corcoran. At Belmont, silver ore is hosted-in, or marginal to quartz veins, while sizeable veins are seldom observed at Corcoran. No appreciable gold is recorded at Belmont whereas gold is ubiquitous at Corcoran. Clearly, these differences will reflect on metallurgy and future mining/processing of ores and NSC will require considerably more data to evaluate future development synergies.
However, the deposits are only about 15 kilometres (km) apart and linked by good roads - they will certainly benefit from shared workforce and infrastructure. Exploration at both sites will initially benefit from sequential/overlapping geophysical surveys and drilling, less crew mobilisation and a common base. Clearly, these synergies will extend through assessment, development and future production as both projects proceed.
What is the timeline to bring the Corcoran project into production?
NSC intends to advance Corcoran as quickly as is feasible. The late 2021 drilling (17 drill holes, 3,040m) has shown that the deposit has potential to have a large tonnage of lower-grade silver-gold (starting at surface) but importantly it has shown numerous high-grade silver zones, which clearly extend along strike and at depth. The potential to expand these targets is excellent as the deposit is open at depth as well as to the north, east and west. NSC will continue drilling to test these extensions into 2022 and 10,000m of drilling has been budgeted. Metallurgical and processing options studies will also be given high priority in 2022. In 2023, Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) and pre-feasibility studies are planned, followed by feasibility studies, as well as a decision to mine expected in 2024.
What are the plans for your Emily manganese project and how do you intend to commercialize the asset?
NSC’s wholly-owned subsidiary, North Star Manganese (NSM), recently completed a review of historic drill data at Emily, including 64 drill holes representing approximately 10,000m of drilling. Based on this review, the NSM technical team is confident it can significantly grow the existing NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate, which will be a key focus of the 2022 drill program. In addition to resource expansion, fresh material will also be collected for metallurgical and battery test work. Historic samples were successfully upgraded to produce MnCO3 (manganese carbonate), EMD (electrolytic manganese dioxide - MnO2) and EMM (electrolytic manganese metal) and further work will be undertaken at Kemetco Research Inc, British Columbia, to advance these studies. NSM’s ultimate aim is to produce high-purity manganese products for North American technology and energy markets.
NSC has also undertaken a comprehensive review of commercialization options for the Emily manganese project. While the outcome of this review will be announced in coming weeks, it is safe to assume that NSC will maintain exposure to this high-value asset, to the benefit of our shareholders. We will not be selling or farming out the project.
Which one of your projects (Corcoran or Emily) is the biggest priority at this time?
NSC listed as a publicly-traded company with Corcoran as its primary asset in May 2021 and, as such, it has been the focus both fiscally and organizationally in 2021. In 2022, NSC will continue to prioritize its Nevada silver projects, including Corcoran and the recently-announced historic Belmont silver mining district, throughout 2022. The Emily project will certainly receive a much higher level of funding and focus in the coming year, albeit potentially in a different organizational setting.
What do your shareholders have to look forward to in the next 12 months?
NSC shareholders can look forward to continuing focus on our Nevada silver business, with expansive drill and exploration programs at both the Corcoran and Belmont projects, as well as further extension of our regional land position. Nevada is ranked as the world’s top-ranked jurisdiction for mining investment, and is the “Silver State”, and we are only too happy to step up our investment in such a favourable environment.
As for the Emily project, 2022 will see a far more extensive technical and commercial focus, with drilling, battery and metallurgical test work and growth via further land acquisitions.
Contact Sean at sean@proactiveinvestors.com