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Black Bear Minerals (ASX:BKB) has this week extended its mineralisation footprint with new drilling results from the Shafter silver project in Texas, after the company received first drilling returns, which have confirmed high-grade mineralisation outside the Shafter mineral resource estimate.
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Disclaimer: This content has been prepared as part of a partnership with Black Bear Resources Ltd and is intended for informational purposes only.
Black Bear chief Dennis Lindgren today explained that the results have also highlighted the polymetallic nature of mineralisation at the project, returning up to 11.0% zinc, 6.9% lead and 0.3 grams per tonne (g/t) gold.
“Great first results highlight the pure silver resource growth potential at Shafter beyond the existing foreign MRE with hole SFD002 returning 9.1m at 240 g/t silver, including 1.5m strike at 501 g/t and is wider and higher grade than nearby historic drilling,” Mr Lindgren said when speaking to shareholders.
“At these grades, step-out success has the potential to materially increase the existing foreign MRE and polymetallic potential, providing strong leverage to an already defined resource base.”
The mineralised zone at Shafter covers approximately four kilometres of strike, which runs from west to east. The central portion was historically worked as the Presidio mine from 1883 until 1942. During that period, the mine produced 35.2M ounces of silver, averaging 521 g/t. The Shafter non-JORC MRE only incorporates silver, with no previous consideration given to multi-commodity potential.
However, recent grab and rock chip sampling by the company has shown that mineralisation at the project includes gold, zinc, lead and vanadium.
Black Bear is re-logging and re-sampling historic core to better understand the distribution of all other significant commodities at the project, with a view to incorporating results into a maiden JORC MRE, in addition to silver.
As part of the phase one exploration drilling, Black Bear has now completed three drill holes in the southwest of the project, targeting an area suspected to be prospective for base metal mineralisation.
Exploration drilling continues on site, targeting further extensions to mineralisation. The company remains well-funded with $12.8M at the end of December CY25 to carry out aggressive exploration programs at both the Shafter Silver project, Texas, and the Independence Gold project, Nevada.
BKB is down -1.14%, to 87c. Mkt cap $134.1M.
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