Vancouver – The Santa Elena deposit in northern Mexico continues to return strong, near-surface gold and silver grades for SilverCrest Mines (SVL-V) as the company prepares a pre-feasibility report on the project due out before year end.
Results from the first half of the companys 2007 40-hole drill program have expanded the Santa Elena Main zone along strike and at depth as well as improving the widths and grades of the deposit.
In terms of expansion drilling, hole 34 was collared 60 meters east of the current resource area boundary and returned 21.4 metres grading 2.21 grams gold per tonne and 171.7 grams silver per tonne from 60 metres depth. Moving a further 50 metres northeast, hole 35 intercepted 21.2 metres grading 2.84 grams gold and 101.1 grams silver from 97 metres downhole.
Drilling within the Main Zone to upgrade inferred resources also returned strong grades. Hole 22 hit 12.9 metres grading 4.92 grams gold and 205.2 grams silver from 81 metres depth, including 5.9 metres of 7.41 grams gold and 253.9 grams silver. And hole 23 returned 10.1 metres grading 6.53 grams gold and 218.7 grams silver, including 11.19 grams gold and 381.4 grams silver over 4.1 metres.
The programs first hole (hole 20), collared almost 200 metres south of the resource area boundary, intersected the Main zone at a vertical depth of 400 metres, defining a 600 metre down dip length from surface and establishing the zone 300 metres below previous intersections. The intercept returned 5.3 metres of 0.45 grams gold and 34.75 grams silver, indicating the drill hit outside of the plunge of the high-grade shoots.
In mid-September SilverCrest moved a second diamond core drill to the project that will drill a series of targets testing the extent of the Silver Footwall Zone, which is adjacent to and north of the Main Zone. The Silver Footwall Zone has been sampled and trenched but this will be the first time it is drill-tested.
According to SilverCrest president Scott Drever, the potential resource area for the starter pit is now 800 metres in length, 15 to 30 metres wide, and extends to a depth of 100 metres. Drever says the companys goal is to develop an indicated, open-pit resource of between 5.5 and 6.5 million tonnes. He is aiming for a production decision by early 2008.
Santa Elena is located 150 km northeast of Hermosilla, in Sonora. A 2006 estimate pegged Santa Elenas indicated resources at 2.5 million tonnes grading 2.16 grams gold and 55.7 grams silver, with an additional 3.5 million tonnes of 1.42 grams gold and 78.3 grams silver inferred resources.
Santa Elena has seen previous production from both open pit and underground mining, including 45,000 tonnes averaging 3.5 grams gold and 60 grams silver from an open pit in the 1980s. Underground operations left behind four accessible underground levels at 15-metre intervals totaling some 1,500 metres of development.
SilverCrest arranged to acquire a 100% interest in the project from its independent owners by making staged payments totaling US$4 million over five years in December 2005.
Some 15 km northeast of Santa Elena sits another SilverCrest property: the 18,000-hectare Silver Angel project. Silver Angel contains seven past-producing, high-grade silver-gold mines. One of those past mines is El Gueriguito-Cruz de Mayo, SilverCrests current focus within Silver Angel.
A historic, non-413-101 complaint report estimates the Cruz de Mayo resource at 2 million tonnes grading 149.5 grams silver with 0.5 gram gold. In 2006 SilverCrest completed a 20-hole drill program at Cruz de Mayo and intercepted the mineralized zone some 1.5 km along strike form previously defined mineralization at the El Gueriguito mine. The best intercept returned 343 grams silver and 0.43 gram gold over 8.8 metres.
In 2007 a 27-hole reverse circulation drill program delineated a strike length of 2.5 km. Stockwork silver mineralization is hosted in a rhyolite bed that dips at 25 to the southwest, paralleling the topographic slope. The best intercept from 2007 came from hole 48: 39 metres grading 48 grams silver, including 6 metres of 131.5 grams silver.
Drever says a 43-101-compliant resource estimate for Cruz de Mayo will be out in the next few weeks.
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