Ecuador court gives green light for Silvercorp, Salazar’s El Domo project
The ruling removes the last major obstacle for the $250 million project, located 150 km northeast of Guayaquil.
Drilling at Callinex Mines’ 118-sq.-km Nash Creek project has encountered a new zone of silver mineralization, 9.6 km away from the current deposit, as well as a new area of near-surface zinc and lead, 1.3 km to the west of existing resources.
The company has released the results of five drill holes: NC19-306 returned 19 metres of 36.53 g/t silver, 0.38% zinc and 0.52% lead starting at a depth of 34 metres. In addition, three drill holes – NC19-309, NC19-310 and NC19-311 – intersected zinc and lead mineralization over a 1.1-km-long trend within the Central Zone area of the project.
Drill highlights include 1 metre of 3.55% zinc, 0.35% lead and 5 g/t silver in NC19-309 and 6 metres of 2.23% zinc, 0.36% lead and 17.83 g/t silver in NC19-310.
Drill highlights include 1 metre of 3.55% zinc, 0.35% lead and 5 g/t silver in NC19-309 and 6 metres of 2.23% zinc, 0.36% lead and 17.83 g/t silver in NC19-310
“The near-surface discovery highlights the prospectivity of the Nash Creek project and requires immediate follow-up to drill test the extent of the mineralization,” Max Porterfield, the company’s president and CEO, said in a release. Porterfield also added that all three of the drill holes completed over the 1.1-km-long strike intercepted zinc and lead mineralization at grades above the cut-offs established in a preliminary economic assessment for the project published in 2018.
The newly discovered silver zone is in the southern part of the project and lies within a magnetic low that extends from the Nash Creek deposit for 11 km to the south.
The three drill holes that intercepted zinc-lead mineralization targeted the Central Zone geophysical anomaly and intersected formations similar to those within the existing Nash Creek deposit. Callinex has outlined an additional anomaly 4 km to the south of the Central Zone for additional follow-up.
The Nash Creek deposit is made up of three shallow sulphide lenses that cover over 2.1 km of strike and remain open. Indicated resources at Nash Creek include 13.6 million indicated tonnes at 2.68% zinc, 0.58% lead and 17.8 g/t silver (963.4 million zinc-equivalent lb.); additional inferred resources consist of 5.9 million tonnes grading 2.68% zinc, 0.47% lead and 13.9 g/t silver (407.1 million lb. zinc-equivalent). The resources were estimated using a cut-off grade of 1.5% zinc-equivalent.
A preliminary economic assessment completed in 2018 for Nash Creek outlined a 10-year open pit mine, producing an average of 76.7 million lb. of zinc, 14.6 million lb. of lead and 400,000 oz. of silver annually in concentrate at operating costs of C$30.94 per tonne. With an initial capital cost estimate of C$168.3 million, the after-tax net present value estimate for the project, at an 8% discount rate, came in at C$127.6 million.
Callinex also holds the Superjack project, which includes a zinc-lead-silver-copper deposit, also within the Bathurst mining district in northeast New Brunswick.
Callinex’s stock was trading up 19% at Friday’s close on the TSXV. The company has a C$8.5 million market capitalization.
(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)
