Northair expands drill program after Mexican silver hits

International Northair Mines (INM-V) is exp-anding a drill program at its La Cigarra silver project in north-central Mexico by 3,000 metres after intersecting 80 metres of 123.5 grams silver per tonne in February. The program will target a 3-km trend hosting three separate mineralized zones, all of which remain open along strike and downdip.

On March 31, the company released the final four assays of the six-hole, 1,500-metre drill program completed in February. 

A notable hit was 53.7 metres of 87.1 grams silver, extending the strike length of the main San Gregorio zone by 100 metres. 

More promising, however, are assays from the less-explored Las Carolinas zone. Core drilling there returned 48 metres of 140.6 grams silver, including a 22.1-metre section of 263 grams silver.

 “The results from these two zones, along with the intervening 1.1 km of untested ground, provide excellent immediate upside exploration potential,” said president and CEO Fred Hewett in a prepared statement.

Northair’s latest drill program will focus mainly on San Gregorio, but will also include Las Carolinas and the La Borracha zone.

International Northair is the ancient flagship of Vancouver mining promoter Don McLeod and his son Bruce. The company 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, on a 1-to-5 basis in 1991, and now has 61.7 million shares outstanding. Both McLeods are still on the board today, however Hewett now handles most of the day-to-day operations.

For more than 20 years, North-air’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 joint-ventures 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 latter two. 

The company optioned La Cigarra in April 2009 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 3.4-sq.-km 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 Las Carolinas
1 km to the southeast and La
Borracha 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 (RC) drill program in spring 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 Borracha. 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 at 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 then closed a $5.3-million private placement comprising 17.1 million units at 30¢ apiece, 7.5 million of which were bought by Sprott Asset Management, a resource fund managed by well-known investor Eric Sprott. 

Northair shares were trading at 10¢ in February and on March 31 – the day the latest assays were released – its shares closed at 61¢ on heavy volume of 5.15 million shares traded.