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- Silver Mines (SVL) expands the Southern Gold Zone at its Bowdens silver project in New South Wales
- Drilling outside a planned open-cut pit has extended the Southern Gold Zone to over 450 metres in strike, 250 metres wide and between 15 to 85 metres thick
- Given the zone starts from near surface and lies outside the planned open pit, SVL says there is a possibility for open-pit design extensions
- The results will feed into an updated mineral resource scheduled for completion in the coming days
- SVL shares closed 2.8 per cent higher at 18.5 cents on Wednesday afternoon
Silver Mines (SVL) has expanded the Southern Gold Zone at its Bowdens silver project in New South Wales.
Drilling outside a planned open-cut pit has extended the Southern Gold Zone to over 450 metres in strike, 250 metres in width and between 15 to 85 metres thick.
The latest results included 384 metres at 62 grams per tonne (g/t) silver equivalent, which included 0.09 g/t gold, and 167 metres at 73 g/t silver equivalent including 0.2 g/t gold.
Given the zone starts from near the surface and lies outside the planned open pit, SVL said there was a possibility for open-pit design extensions.
The Southern Gold Zone remains open to the southeast and east, where exploration drilling will continue to test for extensions.
Drilling at the Southern zone was completed as part of a wider program carried out last year that also tested for higher grades within the open-cut pit design, above the Southern Gold Zone, and returned 147 metres at 40 g/t silver as well as 81 metres at 55 g/t silver – but no gold.
According to SVL, research has shown gold is associated with silver-rich electrum and is the last phase of mineralisation to occur at Bowdens.
Today’s results are the final results from the company’s 15,000-metre diamond drilling program at the deposit ahead of receiving final development approvals.
Silver Mines has begun updating the open-pit mineral resource, which will include gold within the Southern Gold Zone and is scheduled for completion in the coming days.
Meanwhile, two drill rigs are onsite targeting extensions to the underground mineral resource estimate, which remains open.
SVL has also started planning a seismic survey, funded under the NSW Government’s New Frontiers Exploration program, which falls under the company’s research and development programs to predict mineralisation at depth.
SVL shares closed 2.8 per cent higher at 18.5 cents on Wednesday afternoon.
