Sierra Nevada Gold swoops on Blackhawk drilling to test for high-grade silver

Sierra Nevada Gold starts drilling at Blackhawk to follow up previous high-grade silver intersection
Remnant high-grade ore positions, vein extensions, near surface mineralised breccias and chargeability targets will also be tested
Drilling will take up to three weeks to complete with assay results to follow

Special Report: Sierra Nevada Gold has launched a 1500m reverse circulation drill program targeting near-surface mine extensions and to follow up on a previous high-grade silver intersection at its Blackhawk project in Nevada.

Core hole BHD006 had returned a 12m intersection grading 219g/t silver and 11.6% lead+zinc from 250m with a high-grade component of 5m at 479g/t gold and 25.9% lead+zinc.

Notably, this is more than 150m below the deepest extent of the historical Endowment mine that produced 70,000oz gold equivalent, mostly between 1860-1880, and has seen little modern exploration since the 1980s.

Adding interest for Sierra Nevada Gold (ASX:SNX), the silver intercepts are associated with very high-grade lead-zinc-gold, demonstrating the potential for extremely high value polymetallic-silver ore.

Finding a substantial resource will undoubtedly be welcome as silver demand has been steadily growing on its increasing use in industrial applications – such as for solar panels and along with investment demand that has prices sitting at decade long highs.

Sierra Nevada Blackhawk — RC drill rig northwest of the Endowment mine. Pic: SNX

Targets aplenty

The company has also identified a large, high-grade intermediate sulphidation epithermal (ISE) silver-gold-lead-zinc vein field, related to a large porphyry system immediately south of the Blackhawk Epithermal project.

It covers ~5km2 and is partially coincident with the Blackhawk porphyry system. This ISE vein system is open under cover both to the north and northeast.

The RC drilling program, which will also test remnant high-grade ore positions, vein extensions, near surface mineralised breccias and chargeability targets generated by induced polarisation surveys, will take about two to three weeks to complete.

“We are excited to have the drill program underway at Blackhawk to test the most prospective silver targets and given we have spent considerable time and planning in refining these targets, we’re very keen to see what it returns,” executive chairman Peter Moore said.

“Previous drilling at the Endowment Mine has delivered high-grade results up to 1270g/t silver. With more than 20km of veins identified to date, we are working to test the most prospective areas first.”

This article was developed in collaboration with Sierra Nevada Gold, 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.