Dolly Varden expands drill campaign after speedy start

VANCOUVER — Dolly Varden Silver (TSXV: DV; US-OTC: DOLLF) is wrapping up a bountiful exploration season in northwestern B.C.’s Golden Triangle region.

The company had originally planned a $3.5-million, 5,000-metre diamond drill campaign at its flagship Dolly Varden silver-lead-zinc property, but it ended up spending $6.5 million and completing nearly 16,000 metres at the 88 sq. km property, which sits north of Alice Arm within the prolific Stewart complex.

Dolly Varden subsequently reported dual discoveries 200 metres north of its resource-stage Torbrit deposit, which hosts 1.9 million indicated tonnes grading 251 grams silver for 15.5 million contained oz., and 845,600 tonnes of inferred material grading 373 grams silver for 10.1 million contained ounces.

A helicopter at Dolly Varden Silver’s namesake silver project in northwest British Columbia. Credit: Dolly Varden Silver.

“We were able to drill much faster than anticipated,” Ben Whiting, Dolly Varden’s vice-president of exploration, said during an interview. “We were actually the first company active in the region and had our camp up and running before our neighbours. So about halfway through the season our team realized we could materially expand what looked to be a highly successful campaign.”

Two types of mineralization are predominant: an epithermal vein-style and mineralized exhalative horizons.

Whiting says the most prominent zone is an aerially extensive sheet of chemical sediment that runs from the western Dolly Varden mine through the North Star underground workings and ends in the eastern Torbrit mine.

Property-wide, Dolly Varden’s indicated resources — including the Dolly Varden, Wolf and North Star deposits — total 3.1 million tonnes of 322 grams silver for nearly 32 million contained oz. silver.

The historic silver mine at Dolly Varden Silver’s namesake project in northwestern British Columbia. Credit: Dolly Varden Silver.

“You really start to see the differences in the blocks when you drill into them,” Whiting said. “We’ve had a very exciting season in terms of finding areas beyond the current resource. The big story is the discovery away from the main deposit.”

Whiting said that the biggest breakthrough came while drilling 200 metres north of the Torbrit mine, where the company found “all the mineralogical signatures of the Dolly Varden-Torbrit horizon.”

Hole 17-58 cut the footwall of the regional Moose-Lamb fault, where the company intersected 16.1 metres at 269 grams silver, 0.3% lead and 0.21% zinc from 481 metres down hole. The company says the discovery may represent “a deeper offset, or parallel deposit.”

“We divided the project up into a series of sectors. There’s the mine area down around the Torbrit, North Star and Dolly Varden mines. Then there’s that northern area we called the ‘Central Sector’ that has a lot of the same alteration and rock types,” Whiting said.

“I’d say that area is our greatest success right now. There’s a stretch up there along about 6 km of the favourable geological units that had very little drilling. We actually pick up that Torbrit horizon around 200 metres deeper there. It’s a target where previous drilling had been very shallow,” he added.

Core racks at Dolly Varden Silver’s namesake silver project in northwest British Columbia. Credit: Dolly Varden Silver.

The company says it has identified the Torbrit horizon as far as 500 metres north of the current resource.

Furthermore, Dolly Varden discovered epithermal vein-style mineralization in the Central Sector during drill-testing of the Moose-Lamb fault, which is a syn-basinal structure, striking northwest to southeast and dipping steeply southwest.

Dolly Varden Silver’s vice-president of exploration Ben Whiting examines core at the firm’s eponymous silver-lead-zinc project in British Columbia. Photo by Rob van Egmond.

On Aug. 29, the company reported that hole 17-63 cut 6.7 metres of 1,181 grams silver, 1.83% lead and 0.26% zinc from 428 metres deep at the Moose zone.

“The next step is to return to our 3-D modelling as we receive the data, and look at the litho-geochemistry,” Whiting said. “That will all factor into how we’ll tackle that next phase. In addition, there are some old mine workings on the property that could provide access underground and targets with some excellent grades we didn’t have a chance to follow up on this season.”

In September, Dolly Varden closed a $5.7-million private placement. The financing included 2.74 million “hard” shares priced at 73¢, and 3.5 million flow-through shares priced at 85¢.

Dolly Varden shares have traded in a 52-week range of 45¢ to 88¢ per share, and closed at 67¢ at press time. The company has 44 million shares outstanding for a $29-million market capitalization. U.S. silver producer Hecla Mining (NYSE: HL) holds a 12% equity interest in the explorer.