Drilling Planned for B.C. Silver Project

After uncovering high grade silver during their recent Phase I exploration program, 50/50 joint venture partners Schellex Gold (VSE) and Harrisburg- Dayton Resource Corp. (VSE) say a 4000-ft diamond drill program will begin this September on the Summit Camp Property near Hope, B.C.

The 1,015-acre property is located in a historic mining district less than 100 miles from Vancouver and immediately adjacent to the Treasure Mountain property being developed by Huldra Silver (VSE). That project has indicated reserves to April of this year of 130,000 tons averaging 29 oz silver per ton, 8.39% lead and 3.51% zinc.

Huldra President Magnus Bratlien said recent drilling intersected ore grade material below the lowest level involved in those reserve calculations, and in areas outside the high grade C vein, which “confirm the potential for additional tonnages along strike and at depth.” The company is now developing a fourth level to determine the extent of the mineralization.

Bratlien said three of the four holes drilled below the vein structure and into the footwall of the zone encountered ruby silver family minerals and argentiferous tetrahedrite, with virtually no lead and zinc.

“We were surprised by this,” he said. “We have grades of 50-70 oz silver in the absence of galena and sphalerite from these lower levels, which gives us the potential of having bonanza ore shoots.”

Bratlien said because the vein material is very friable and brittle, diamond drilling will be somewhat unreliable in delineating the full extent and grade of mineralization. A typical “drill for structure, drift for values” situation, he adds.

Earlier this year, a 400-ton bulk surface sample from Huldra Silver’s C vein was processed by Cominco (VSE) and Asarco and smelter assays of this select high grade ore gave a weighted average grade of 100.3 oz ton silver, 32.7% lead and 6.8% zinc.

On the adjacent Summit Camp property, the phase one program operated by Harrisburg-Dayton extended the previously discovered Indiana vein to a 2,624 ft strike length. The company reports that the vein was exposed in over 984 ft of trenching and ranges from 2.3-9.8 ft wide.

Gary Schellenberg, a geologist and president of Schellex Gold, said the structure is extensively mineralized with massive silver, lead and zinc mineralization.

“There is also disseminated mineralization into the host rock,” he adds.

The company reports that the structure reached its widest point of 9.8 ft at the Summit Trench (about 1000 ft up from the mountain base) where it was exposed over a 328 ft strike length. A character sample taken from the trench assayed 230.54 oz silver. Near the base of the mountain at the old Indiana adit, the vein structure is 4.2 ft wide. Schellenberg said the adit was re-opened and the structure was followed for about 131 ft. A grab sample from the adit wall contained 52.16 oz silver.

Systematic channel sampling of the structure is now under way, which will later be followed by drilling to test the structure at depth. The property is accessible by good logging roads.

According to Schellex Gold, mineralization in the general area consists of silver-bearing sulphides in quartz carbonate veins (usually between 0.3-5.2 ft. wide) localized along prominent, steeply dipping fault structures, subsidiary faults and tension fractures.

Schellex is also planning exploration work, including a diamond drill program, on its Red Tusk property located about 55 km north of Vancouver where previous exploration work had outlined two zones anomalous in precious and base metals.