Drilling unlocks plenty of upside at Sun Silver’s Maverick Springs project

Sun Silver drilling hits more thick, high-grade silver zones at its Maverick Springs project
Hits including 73.15m at 75g/t silver are outside the current resource
Company confident of growing resource beyond the current 423Moz silver equivalent

Special Report: Resources at Sun Silver’s flagship Maverick Springs silver-gold project in Nevada are likely to grow as drilling continues to return thick zones of high-grade silver mineralisation.

Adding to previous hits that included a 106m intersection grading 54g/t silver, the latest batch of results using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) readings include a tasty intersection of 73.15m at 75g/t silver from a down-hole depth of 249.94m in hole MR24-199.

This includes a peak result of 1.52m at 524g/t silver from 254.51m while hole MR24-198 returned a 10.67m hit at 48g/t silver.

Highlighting the potential to deliver resource growth, Sun Silver (ASX:SS1) noted that MR24-198 and MR24-199 sit ~240m and ~150m respectively from historical drilling and are outside of the current inferred resource of 195.7Mt at 40.25g/t silver and 0.32g/t gold, or 253.3Moz of contained silver and 2Moz of contained gold.

While pXRF results cannot be used to quantify resources, they do allow for real time analysis of drill samples and confirmation of mineralisation in the field, which in turn enables immediate on-site decisions on any necessary adjustments to drilling strategies by suggesting where significant accumulations of the target mineral could be found.

All drill intercepts will be sent to an independent laboratory for accurate analysis.

Previous analysis of results from the laboratory plotted against pXRF results has demonstrated a bias towards higher grades in the lab assays, indicating that pXRF results at Maverick Springs are potentially conservative.

Drill holes locations at Maverick Springs. Pic: Sun Silver

Drilling continuing

“We continue to drill extensional holes outside of the current resource, and we continue to intersect significant silver mineralisation,” executive director Gerard O’Donovan said.

“This gives us significant confidence in the work the geological team is doing on the ground, as well as in our ability to grow the resource beyond its current level of 423Moz at 67.25g/t AgEq.”

Drilling is ongoing in the north-west section of Maverick Springs, which is just 85km from the fully serviced mining town of Elko in the mining friendly US state of Nevada, and surrounded by several world-class gold and silver operations including Barrick’s Carlin Mine.

SS1 also plans to release an updated resource estimate later this year, having already labelled Maverick Springs the largest pre-development silver resource by metal content on the ASX.

This article was developed in collaboration with Sun Silver, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.