Oremex drills wide silver intercept

Vancouver — Continued drilling by Oremex Resources (ORM-V) on its Tejamen project, in the state of Durango, Mexico, has intersected wide zones of high-grade silver in the El Manto zone.

Since December of 2003, the recently-listed silver explorer has been aggressively working on its Mexican projects with most of the focus on Tejamen, situated in the Sierra Madre Occidental gold belt. Extensive drilling has confirmed the large zone of high-grade silver on the El Manto area. Oremex expects the mineralized zone is amenable to possible open-pit mining.

The latest round of 16 holes brings the total number drilled on the project to 91, since the company commenced its program.

Results from this latest reverse-circulation drill program include:

— Hole MMT-097 — This RC hole on El Manto intersected a 139-metre section (from 14 metres) grading 105.5 grams silver per tonne, including 8 metres of 383 grams silver near the top of the drill hole and a 44-metre section at the bottom of the hole averaging 174 grams silver;

— Hole MMT-101 — An extensive, high-grade intercept of 89 metres (from 80 metres) assayed an impressive 621 grams silver, and included yet even higher-grade sections of 4 metres grading 1862.5 grams silver, 8 metres of 989 grams, 10 metres of 1,201 grams and the hole bottomed out in mineralization of 11 metres of 689 grams silver.

Mineralization at the El Manto zone occurs both along and adjacent to an andesite-rhyolite contact as well as in quartz veins associated with a northeast-trending series of faults and fractures. The steeply dipping structures formed the plumbing for the hydrothermal system to mineralize the fault zone as well as pool, or spread laterally along the andesite-rhyolite contact. A halo of disseminated, lower-grade silver mineralization surrounds the high-grade veins.

Oremex’s drilling is testing the lateral extent of the El Manto mineralization, which remains open in all directions. Following the completion of this phase of drilling, the company expects sufficient drill density and data will be available for a NI-43-101 compliant resource estimate. A historic inferred resource estimate of about 8.4 million tonnes grading 89 grams silver and 0.2 gram gold was reported.

The Tejamen area has seen exploration since the late 1800s with small-scale mining undertaken up to 1910, when the Mexican Revolution began. More recently, underground silver mining was conducted on the Cerro Prieto zone on the property. Five levels were exploited, from an 80-metre shaft, at a mining rate of about 27 tonnes per day.

Oremex is actively earning a 100% interest in six silver projects in west-central Mexico.

The company reports 22.8 million shares outstanding and has recently traded in the 75-per-share range.