Sun Silver Ltd (ASX:SS1) is building confidence in a high-grade extension to the northwest of its Maverick Springs silver-gold project in Nevada, hitting a thick intercept grading more than 79 grams per tonne in silver equivalent (AgEq) during its first drill program there.
One hole of the extension drilling program yielded an intercept measuring 88.39 metres at 79.6 grams per tonne (g/t) AgEq – or 61.7g/t silver and 0.21g/t gold from 211.84 metres down-hole.
This included 13.72 metres at 166.65g/t AgEq from 231.65 metres (137.9g/t silver, 0.34g/t gold) and 1.52 metres at 521.52g/t AgEq from 289.56 metres (508g/t silver, 0.16g/t gold).
The hole in question remains open at depth and terminated in mineralisation.
Crucially, these figures confirmed Sun Silver’s theory that there is thick and high-grade mineralisation extending to the north-west of the resource area for Maverick Springs.
Last month, the company updated the market on these resource parameters, saying Maverick Springs had grown 45% to 423 million ounces of silver and gold with a combined average equivalent grade of 67.2g/t.
Results are still pending from two holes drilled during the program, although it was observed that they also intersected high-grade mineralisation outside the existing resource (indicated by pXRF readings).
Executive Director Gerard O’Donovan said the results boded well for growth of the project.
“We’re thrilled to confirm the continuation of high-grade mineralisation as we step out from the recently upgraded Mineral Resource at the Maverick Springs Project,” he said.
“This has proven our theory that wide high-grade mineralisation extends to the north-west of the current Resource area, providing strong momentum for the remainder of our extensional drilling program.
“We look forward to receiving additional assays from the ongoing program, which will feed into future Mineral Resource updates for the Maverick Springs Project.”
Investors seemed impressed by the news, and by 12:14 AEST, shares in Sun Silver were trading at 67 cents – a rise of 7.20% since the market opened.