Although Cerro Las Minitas obviously still is Southern Silver’s (SSV.V) flagship project, the company is exploring its options and recently completed a 4,050 meter drill program on its Oro porphyry target in New Mexico. The assay results of the final two core holes were released last week and the results from hole OR22-012 are by far the most interesting.
The drill bit encountered two separate mineralized intervals with 0.8 meters of 12.4 g/t gold at about 496 meters downhole followed by a very thick interval of 427 meters containing 0.15% copper-equivalent (consisting of 0.08% copper, 0.01% molybdenum and 1.4 g/t silver). And within that thick mineralized interval, the drill bit encountered 9.1 meters of 0.92% copper-equivalent (consisting of 0.59% copper, 0.01% molybdenum, 0.3 g/t gold and 2.3 g/t silver). Hole 12 was drilled into a strong ZTEM anomaly and only tested a portion of this anomaly which means there is plenty of strike length and width that still has to be tested. To accommodate this, Southern Silver has staked an additional 56 lode claims over the possible extensions of the skarn/CRD mineralization it intersected in hole 12. The company has already completed a mapping program on the new claims and samples have been submitted to the lab for analysis.
Joe Kizis, CEO of Bravada Gold (BVA.V) and a consultant to Southern Silver on the Oro project, mentioned the exploration theory is still focusing on the discovery of a large Laramide-age copper porphyry system. The ZTEM survey has defined the sulfide-rich phyllic alteration which typically surrounds the area with the strongest copper values. Additionally, the ZTEM anomaly is even stronger towards the north from where OR22-012 was drilled which indicates there’s an even higher concentration of sulfides.
Disclosure: The author has a long position in Southern Silver for its Cerro Las Minitas project. Southern Silver is a sponsor of the website. Please read our disclaimer.
