Vancouver — Drill results indicate higher grades and a likely expansion of the silver-zinc resources at
More than three-quarters of the resource is in the main Cerro Colorado III deposit, with the remainder contained in the San Casimiro satellite deposit, several hundred metres to the north.
The indicated resource stands at 2.3 million tonnes grading 163.4 grams silver and 0.13 gram gold per tonne, plus 1.35% zinc and 0.36% lead; that’s equivalent to 12 million oz. silver, based on a cutoff of 34 grams silver, and 68 million lbs. zinc.
The inferred resource totals 743,000 tonnes grading 95.8 grams silver, 0.12 gram gold, 1.44% zinc and 0.37% lead, or 2.28 million oz. silver and 17.6 million lbs. zinc.
At Cerro Colorado, higher-than-expected silver grades were found consistently. The best of these included a 76-metre-wide intercept grading 360 grams silver and 1.09% zinc from surface in hole 2.
At San Casimiro, a gold-in-shear zone was found. Four holes intersected significant gold grades, including 7 metres of 3.54 grams gold and 27.6 metres of 2.13 grams gold, in addition to the high silver and zinc grades.
The drilling has verified the high-grade silver caps on both the Cerro Colorado III and San Casimiro deposits. The latter also has significant gold zones. Moreover, volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) mineralization is evident in both deposits.
SilverCrest President Scott Drever says the drilling is designed to confirm and expand the resource. “There are a number of geotechnical holes outside of the pit area where we also got higher-than-expected results,” he points out.
These higher grades may be a result of re-mobilization and re-deposition of mineralization derived from three mineralizing events. “First, there was a VMS event that accounts for the zinc, with lesser amounts of gold and silver, followed by brecciation in the oxide silver caps,” Drever says. “These events are in turn followed by dioritic intrusions, which placed the gold in the shear zones.”
An ongoing feasibility study by SRK should enable the company to apply for an exploitation permit by February 2005. New drill results will be incorporated into the feasibility study.
The 42-sq.-km El Zapote property is 20 km from the company’s Concepcion concession in Guatemala and 40 km from the El Ocote project in Honduras.
Be the first to comment on "SilverCrest expands El Zapote"