Panama’s President blames previous gov’t for First Quantum mine crisis
The Cobre Panama mine paid the price for the accumulated national discontent, said President José Raúl Mulino.
Zacatecas Silver (TSXV: ZAC) announced Thursday an update on its drilling program at the Panuco deposit in the Zacatecas property in Mexico, where 29 angled diamond drill holes have been drilled for a total of 5,160 metres.
Mexico’s Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources, (SEMARNAT) has approved 13 additional drill permits at Panuco North and Panuco Central, the company said, adding that drilling is ongoing at Panuco North with assays pending on multiple drill holes.
Zacatecas Silver came out of the gate with an investment by Eric Sprott, who owns 2 million shares, and is the first silver play for CEO Bryan Slusarchuk, who is also CEO of Fosterville South Exploration and founder of K92 Mining. The Fosterville gold mine in Australia is one of the world’s lowest-cost, highest-grade gold mines, and Slusarchuk grew K92 mining from a micro-cap to a company with a $1.4 billion market capitalization.
The Zacatecas Silver property is located within the Fresnillo Silver Belt, which has produced over 6.2 billion ounces of silver. The company holds 7,826 hectares of ground that it said is highly prospective for low and intermediate sulphidation silver-base metal mineralization and potentially low sulphidation gold-dominant mineralization.
In November 2021, it announced Panuco Central Vein contains an Inferred Mineral Resource of 2.1 million tonnes at 171 g/t AgEq for 11.3 million ounces AgEq. High-grade Panuco North Vein contains an Inferred Mineral Resource of 0.7 million tonnes at 235 g/t AgEq for 5.1 million ounces AgEq. Assays have been received for 9 holes — several of which intersected significant silver grades, including an intercept returning 2.17m at 823 g/t AgEq.
In Thursday’s release, Zacatecas Silver said it has completed necessary environmental studies and applied to SEMARNAT for an additional 27 drill pads at Panuco North. An application for drill permits at El Cristo was submitted in December and the company said approval is expected soon.
Midday Thursday, Zacatecas Silver’s stock was up 2.8% on the TSX. The company has a C$57 million ($45.5m) market capitalization.
