The grade of both precious and base metals at the Silver Queen project in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle is what first caught the eye of Vancouver-based exploration company Equity Metals Corporation (TSX-V:EQTY, OTCQB:EQMEF).
In fact, the company was so impressed by the historical grades of gold and silver equivalents at Silver Queen that it took over the management of the project in 2019 from predecessor company New Nadina, who had held the project for several decades but had failed to develop a mine at the site due to unfavourable market conditions.
Led by lawyer and successful junior mining company entrepreneur Lawrence Page, Equity Metals’ team is made up of experienced geologists, accountants, lawyers, and business people with a track record of exploration, discovery, and development success.
With historic exploration at Silver Queen harking back more than 100 years, but minimal historic production, Equity Metals believes it can create near to mid-term shareholder value through aggressive advancement and expansion of the project’s current NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate, with a near-term resource target of 1.0 million to 1.5 million ounces of gold equivalent.
READ: Equity Metals finds bonanza-grade mineralization in three drill holes at Silver Queen BC property
Equity Metals president Joseph Kizis Jr told Proactive that the combination of relatively simple and low-cost exploration with the potential for a large high-grade vein system is what encouraged the company to take over management of the 18,852-hectare Silver Queen property.
“New Nadina had a number of other interesting assets within the company, but our interest was primarily the Silver Queen project because we saw it as a way to create significant value for our shareholders quickly,” he said. “This type of vein mineralization - an intermediate-sulfidation, epithermal type of system - is associated with porphyry deposits, and by analogy with systems worldwide, vein mineralization above porphyry deposits can be extensive and very high grade.”
Exploration at Silver Queen
Equity Metals is currently exploring the Silver Queen property to understand its full potential. The company believes it is very close to its target of 1 million ounces of gold equivalent - double what was recorded in a 2019 NI 43-101 resource estimate completed by New Nadina - based on its drill results to date, with the hope that additional drilling this fall would continue to expand the resource.
So far, the company has completed 25,658 metres (m) of diamond drilling, totalling 79 drill holes, at the project as it works towards obtaining a maiden resource estimate for the Camp Vein target where much of the drill program was targeted. It is expected the maiden resource estimate will be completed in early 3Q, 2022, allowing the company to include more recent assay results that were delayed due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Kizis described the drill results to date as “very impressive,” intersecting bonanza-grade silver in the Camp Vein including an intercept with “ruby silver” at 56,115 grams per tonne of silver over 0.3m.
READ: Equity Metals confirms extension of promising NG-3 vein at the Silver Queen project in British Columbia
Drilling has also allowed the company to recognize there are at least two major orientations for vein development at Silver Queen, roughly north-west and east-west, which Kizis said appeared to host the strongest mineralization.
“This understanding is important because it means there are very attractive undrilled targets on other historically identified veins, as well as projects of untested vein intersections covered by grassland,” he said.
The Equity Metals president noted that, although exploration was focused on the veins, the company recognized that there was almost certainly a large area of porphyry copper-molybdenum mineralization deeper than the veins being explored. “Building a solid resource base within the vein system through resource expansion not only builds solid value for the company but also provides us the knowledge to be more successful in discovering new deposits through our future exploration,” Kizis explained.
Despite having initial concerns about the property due to the cost of exploration in remote parts of British Columbia, like the Golden Triangle, Kizis noted that Silver Queen had exceptionally good logistics including paved and gravel road access and power lines through the western portion of the property.
“The topography is gentle-to-moderate with many jeep trails throughout and it lies in the snow shadow east of the high coast mountains, providing a full-year exploration season so we’ve drilled through most of the past two winters,” he said. “We also have a camp on-site and the town of Houston is about a 40-minute drive from the property.”
Diverse portfolio
In addition to its flagship Silver Queen project, Equity Metals has a number of other interesting assets it sees as possible areas of future growth or for sale. This includes stakes in two diamond properties via joint ventures with various parties in the Lac De Gras diamond region of the Northwest Territories of Canada, one of Canada’s most prolific diamond-producing regions. The company is the operating partner of the Monument project with 57% ownership and a minority partner of the WO project with 4.5% ownership.
Kizis explained that diamond prices had recovered in recent years, meaning there was value in these two properties. “Both projects have drill holes into numerous diamond-bearing kimberlite bodies,” he said. “We recently conducted a magnetics survey on a portion of the Monument property and identified several drill targets that have not yet been drilled. However, at this time, we feel our drill funds should be directed to advancing Silver Queen.”
READ: Equity Metals identifies battery-grade silica for potential use in EV market at La Ronge Silica project in Saskatchewan
Equity Metals also holds a lease on the La Ronge silica project in Saskatchewan, one of Canada’s prairie provinces. The company is evaluating the deposit for use in several industries, including the booming battery market where its addition to lithium batteries can improve battery performance, and ceramic and glass manufacturing.
Kizis noted this project was of particular interest due to the ongoing research on silicon’s ability to increase the charge capacity and rate of recharging in lithium batteries. To overcome physical issues around the swelling of batteries when silicon is added, there has been some success using nanoparticles of silicon. Silica sand can be refined to silicon (silica metal) when the grades are at least 98% silica, which Kizis said could be achieved at La Ronge.
“We recently released the study results that show we have extensive areas of silica sand that can be upgraded to 98%-plus silica by simply washing away clays utilizing off-the-shelf processing equipment used in sand and gravel operations,” he explained.
Kizis noted that La Ronge’s main advantage compared to other sources of silica was the friable nature of the deposit, which makes mining inexpensive without the need for explosives or crushing.
“We expect that the value of the La Ronge deposit will increase significantly when the physical issues related to adding silicon to lithium batteries are finally resolved,” the Equity Metals president concluded.
Contact the author Emily Jarvie at emily.jarvie@proactiveinvestors.com
Follow her on Twitter @emilyjjarvie