Silverjack Shows Potential For Slam Exploration

VANCOUVER — A 20-hole drill program at the Silverjack project in New Brunswick has started to delineate a well-mineralized silver-copper- zinc-lead zone for owner Slam Exploration (SXL-V).

Silverjack, a 9.9-sq.-km property in north-central New Brunswick, is home to manto-type polymetallic mineralization associated with a limestone unit. Slam’s recent drilling effort traced mineralization along 130 metres of strike, though the limestone formation extends more than 3 km farther to the southwest.

Sixteen of the 20 holes drilled in the recent campaign intersected silver- copper-zinc-lead mineralization. Intercepts ranged in length up to 6.6 metres and reached top grades of 653 grams silver per tonne and 2.69% copper.

The first hole of the program returned one of the best results: hole 1 cut 5.4 metres grading 128.3 grams silver, 0.82% copper, 2.18% zinc and 1.52% lead, starting 56 metres downhole and including 0.8 metre averaging 592 grams silver, 1.95% copper, 7.39% zinc and 5.51% lead. Hole 1 was collared in the middle of the zone; the next five holes probed the ground to the north.

Of those next five holes, hole 4 hit the best intercept, cutting a 3.2- metre interval grading 139.4 grams silver, 0.77% copper, 1.7% zinc and 1.19% lead from 51 metres depth. The intercept in hole 4 included 0.7 metre grading 423 grams silver, 2.24% copper, 5.14% zinc and 3.06% lead.

The rest of the drill program focused primarily on ground directly to the southeast. Hole 7 cut 1.9 metres grading 45.65 grams silver, 0.22% copper, 10.43% zinc and 9.48% lead from 56 metres depth, while hole 12 returned 3.5 metres grading 171.3 grams silver, 0.78% copper, 4.81% zinc and 4.02% lead, starting 44 metres downhole and including 0.7 metre averaging 585 grams silver, 2.47% copper, 14.6% zinc and 12.8% lead.

Hole 14 pulled the longest intercept from the ground, returning 6.6 metres averaging 268.2 grams silver, 1.27% copper, 5.65% zinc and 4.53% lead from 45 metres downhole.

The hit included 0.8 metre averaging 653 grams silver, 2.69% copper, 2% zinc and 2.34% lead.

And two holes drilled as along-strike step-outs also hit mineralization. Holes 10 and 11, collared close together roughly 80 metres southwest of the rest of the drill holes, returned 0.5 metre grading 43 grams silver, 0.55% copper, 3.79% zinc and 3.42% lead, and 0.9 metre averaging 18 grams silver, 0.23% copper, 1.2% zinc and 0.87% lead, respectively.

The 1,780-metre drill program defined mineralization along 130 metres strike. Mineralization at Silverjack occurs as disseminations and seams of coarse-grained copper, lead and zinc sulphides hosted in altered limestone.

Trench work has traced sulphide mineralization along 1,600 metres strike.

In addition, samples collected from test pits dug in the general vicinity of an historic rare earth mineral occurrence returned anomalous values in some rare earth metals, including lanthanum, cerium and neodymium.

Silverjack was discovered in the 1960s and the best historical drill result hit 1,565 grams silver, 3.75% copper, 15% zinc, and 11% lead over roughly 1 metre. The project sits 12 km southwest of the Belledune smelter and seaport.

Also nearby is another Slam project: the Nash Creek zinc-lead-silver project is adjacent to Silverjack and hosts 7.8 million indicated tonnes grading 2.72% zinc, 0.55% lead and 18.26 grams silver, as well as 1.2 million inferred tonnes averaging 2.66% zinc, 0.52% lead and 18 grams silver.

Slam’s share price gained a penny on news of the latest drill results to close at 9.5¢. The company has a 52- week trading range of 1¢-14.5¢ and has 118 million shares outstanding.