International Northair expands drill program after Mexican silver hits

Vancouver – International Northair Mines (inm-v) is expanding the drill program at its La Cigarra silver project in north-central Mexico by 3,000 metres after its recent intersection there of 80 metres of 123.5 grams silver per tonne. The program will target a 3-km trend hosting three separate mineralized zones, all of which remain open along strike and down dip.

Assays for four remaining holes from a recently completed 1,500-metre drill program at the project are pending.

International Northair is the ancient flagship of Vancouver mining promoter Don McLeod and his son Bruce. It first listed in the 1960s as Northair Mines but has been exploring for Mexican epithermal silver deposits since at least the early 1990s. Over the years it has rolled back its shares just once, 1:5 in 1991, and now has 61.7 million outstanding. Both McLeods are still on the board today, however president and CEO Fred Hewett now handles most of the day-to-day operations.

Over the course of 20 years Northair’s stock has poked its dogged head above $1 only a handful of times. It has joint ventured or explored at least 14 Mexican projects, including several promising JVs with major mining companies such as Teck Resources (tck-t, tck-n) and Yamana Gold (yri-t, auy-n) which eventually came to naught. Today only three projects remain – La Cigarra, El Reventon and Sierra Rosario – though exploration has largely stopped at the other two.

The company optioned La Cigarra in April 2009 at the right price from private vendors; it paid US$5,000 upfront and agreed to pay another US$445,000 over five years for a royalty-free, 100% interest.

The 335-hectare property comprises seven concessions home to dozens of small- to medium-sized old workings. The company says there is no evidence of any modern exploration previously carried out on the project.

La Cigarra lies within what Northair believes is a prospective geological belt on the eastern flanks of the Sierra Madre Occidental in Chihuahua State. The epithermal, low-sulphidation silver mineralization occurs within altered rhyolite intrusives and sediments, including shale, siltstone and sandstone.

The company has so far delineated three mineralized zones at La Cigarra along a northwest-southeast trend. San Gregorio, the central zone, hosts the highest grades and best exploration results to date, followed by the Las Carolinas zone 1 km to the southeast and the La Boracha zone 1 km to the northwest.

Sampling at the zones in late 2009 returned up to 1,900 grams silver and led to an initial 1,500-metre reverse-circulation drill program in the spring of 2010. The RC drilling hit 32 metres of 132.4 grams silver at San Gregorio, 10.7 metres of 172.5 grams silver at Las Carolinas and 7.6 metres of 68 grams silver at La Boracha. Anomalous, low-grade gold was also found in most of the holes.

To confirm silver values and expand geological knowledge of the property, Northair began a 1,500-metre follow-up core drill program in November 2010. It focused on step-out and deeper drilling of Las Carolinas and San Gregorio, and assays from the first two drill holes (including 80 metres of 123.5 grams silver) sent Northair’s stock up to 42¢ from 15¢ on 22.5 million shares traded.

The company has since closed a $5.3-million private placement comprising 17.1 million units sold at 30¢, 7.5 million of which were bought by Sprott Asset Management, a resource fund managed by well-known investor Eric Sprott.

Northair’s latest 3,000-metre drill program will focus mainly on San Gregorio, but will also include Las Carolinas and La Boracha. At press time on March 23, Northair’s stock was up 7.5¢ to 44.5¢ on 2.5 million shares traded.