Tier One Silver raises $13.5M ahead of Q2 drilling in Peru

With a listing on the Toronto Venture Exchange in the works, Tier One Silver has raised $13.5 million for exploration at its flagship Curibaya silver-gold project in Peru.

The junior, along with another Peru-focused explorer, Sombrero Resources, was spun out of Auryn Resources when that company merged with Eastmain Resources to create Fury Gold (TSX: FURY) in October.

The private placement of 13.45 million common shares at $1 apiece, was upsized from $10 million due to “considerable demand” from investors, said Tier One president and CEO Peter Dembicki in a press release.

The financing will fund the company’s first-ever drill program for Curibaya, located 48 km northeast of Tacna in the southernmost region of Peru.

“We believe the Curibaya project represents a premier large-scale, high-grade silver exploration opportunity globally and we look forward to drilling it early in the second quarter,” Dembicki said. “We appreciate the continued support from shareholders and insiders in these financings and are pleased to welcome new investors.”

The 110-sq.-km Curibaya project is located in a copper porphyry belt that hosts Anglo American‘s (LSE: AAL) Quellaveco, and Southern Copper Corp.’s (NYSE: SCCO) Toquepala deposits, and is the first major epithermal occurrence in the belt. The project contains high-grade mineralization in veins within a 4 by 5-km alteration system.

The age of mineralization at Curibaya (Paleocene) also matches the age of the major deposits in southern Peru, the company has reported.

“Understanding that the mineralization at Curibaya is a result of the same metallogenic event that produced some of the largest copper porphyry deposits in Peru strengthens our belief that the project can deliver a major discovery,” said Michael Henrichsen, Tier One’s chief geologist. “We believe that the entire epithermal to porphyry continuum is preserved at the project, giving us discovery potential from surface to over 1 kilometre in depth.”

Grab samples at Curibaya have returned up to 298,590 grams silver per tonne (298 kg/t) and 14.1 grams gold per tonne. The results will aid in drill targeting to ensure the zones with the highest grades and vein density are drilled.