Excellon hits Durango high-grade

The first batch of nine holes from a 17-hole drill program is outlining another high-grade manto on Excellon Resources‘ (EXN-V EXLLF-O) Platosa silver-lead-zinc property in Mexico’s Durango state.

The drilling focussed on the Guadalupe manto discovered late last year. The discovery hole (no. 132) cut 9.3 metres (estimated true width of 7.8 metres) of massive sulphides grading 1,516 grams silver (44.2 oz. per ton), 16.4% lead, and 15% zinc.

Five of the recent holes yielded the following results:

• Hole 133 — 4.3 metres (from 158.9 metres) averaging 2,557 grams silver (74.6 oz. per ton), 13.9% lead, and 15.3% zinc, and 2.4 metres of 1,127 grams silver (32.8 oz.), 20.1% lead and 31.6% zinc;
• Hole 136 5 metres running 839 grams silver (24.5 oz.), 4.5% lead, and 3% zinc;
• Hole 137 — 3.4 metres of 2,303 grams silver (67.2 oz.), 7.4% lead, and 7.6% zinc, 1.9 metres of 4,009 grams silver (116.9 oz.), 12.9% lead, and 13.4% zinc;
• Hole 138 8 metres at 860 grams silver (25.1 oz.), 3.4% lead, and 11.1% zinc; and
• Hole 141 — 4.6 metres containing 1,331 grams silver (38.8 oz.), 12.4% lead, and 28.6% zinc.

The holes define a 50-metre-by-50-metre zone averaging 5.6 metres in thickness, with a thickness-weighted average grade of 1,331 grams silver (38.8 oz.), 20% lead and 14% zinc.Overall, the manto strikes for some 100 metres, with a width of up to 65 metres making it the property’s largest manto so far.

Three other holes yielded up to 10 metres of lower-grade sulphide-bearing breccias on the northeast, southwest and southern flanks of the zone characteristics typical of the margins of Platosa-style mantos.

Meanwhile, some 100 metres to the southeast, step-put drilling 15 metres from the Guadalupe South manto discovery hole yielded between 1.1 metres and 4.1 metres of massive sulphides. Assay results for all 4 holes are pending.

Further step-out drilling is planned for both new mantos; drilling is also testing for feeders to the Guadalupe manto.

“As expected, the grades coming from the Guadalupe Manto are comparable to the high-grade ores we’re currently exploiting under our test-mining program,” said Excellon chairman Richard Brissenden.

He says the ongoing test-mining program at Platossa will be expanded to encompass the Guadalupe Manto. Plans also call for more aggressive exploration of a coincident geophysical and biogeochemical anomaly dubbed the Guadalupe trend. The company has also begun a district-scale biogeochemical sampling program to identify additional targets for a third surface drill rig, and to better understand the overall mineralized system.

Roscoe Postle and Associates will incorporate the Guadalupe manto into an updated resource estimate due out in April.

At last count, Platossa was home to indicated resources totalling 63,400 tonnes grading 2,346 grams silver per tonne (68.4 oz. per ton), plus 15.2% lead and 11.9% zinc. There is also an inferred resource of 2,100 tonnes grading 1,433 grams silver per tonne (41.9 oz. per ton), 18.2% lead and 14.9% zinc. The resource is contained in six mantos lined up in a northeasterly direction, parallel to the Zorra-Platosa trend.

The drill results sent shares in Excellon as much as 17, or 22%, higher to a 52-week high of 92 in early afternoon Venture-exchange trading on Mar. 29.