Silver Mines Limited (ASX: SVL) announced that the drilling at the Aegean and Northwest high-grade Zones within the Bowdens Silver Deposit in NSW returned high-grade assays and established Aegean Zone as a significant target for underground mining scenarios.
Standout intercepts included 8.0 metres @ 543 g/t silver from 307 metres; including 3.0 metres @ 1302 g/t silver from 312 metres.
SVL noted that these latest results including previous results define the Aegean Zone as a high-grade body of silver mineralisation with a strike length of 150 metres, a width of 50 metres, and 2 to 8 metres thick. The zone remains open to the east (down dip), north, and northwest (down plunge).
The company said that further drilling is underway to test the relationship and potential connectivity of the Aegean and Northwest High-Grade Zones.
SVL reported that the drilling results to the north of the Main Zone and close to surface, confirm that the Main Zone remains open to the northwest of the current Ore Reserve.
Drilling at Bowdens Silver project
The Bowdens Silver Project is located in central New South Wales, approximately 26 kilometres east of Mudgee.
The company had recently commenced diamond drilling to test the potential for underground mining scenarios at the Bowdens Silver Deposit with a focus on the Northwest High-Grade Zone and the Aegean Zone.
The Aegean Zone is a high-grade vein system located beneath the bulk-tonnage Ore Reserve in the Main Zone area of the Bowdens Deposit and is located approximately 300 metres to the east of the Northwest High-Grade Zone, where recent drilling had returned spectacular results.
Historic intercepts from Aegean zone
Previous intercepts which define the Aegean Zone back towards, and into the Ore Reserve include some very high-grade assays such as 1m @ 2479g/t Ag Eq in BD16007, 2m @ 1421g/t Ag Eq in BD16005, 7m @ 432g/t Ag Eq in BGD040 and 10m @ 211g/t Ag Eq in BGD304.
The company has now reported the latest drill results from the Aegean Zone and Main Zone.
Exceptional high-grade drill results
SVL reported that excellent results were received from drilling at Aegean Zone.
Aegean Zone
The company said that the new results defining the Aegean Zone include a significant intercept of 8.0 metres @ 543g/t silver from BD21003 and 8.0metres at 198 g/t silver from 260 metres and 2.0metres at 245g/t silver from 295 metres from BD21002.
SVL said that the drill hole BD21003 was designed to test for extensions to high-grade mineralisation below the Main Zone, the Aegean Zone.
Main Zone
The company reported that high-grade results were returned from the very north of Main Zone. The results returned in BD21003 included 113.3m @ 113g/t Ag Eq from 60.7 metres to 174 metres at a 30g/t silver equivalent cut off.
This follows on from the earlier outstanding assays returned in BD21002 of 35m @ 467g/t Ag Eq from 96 metres, including 7.0m @ 1090g/t Ag Eq from 97 metres and 6.1m @ 874g/t Ag Eq from 122 metres.
Important assays from Aegean Zone and Main Zone are as shown below.
The company said that these results, both at the northern limit of Main Zone, demonstrate that the near-surface mineralisation remains open immediately to the northwest of the current Ore Reserve, with the potential to extend beyond the proposed pit design.
What’s next?
The company said that drilling is ongoing to test other high-grade silver targets around the current resource and extensions with a focus on the Northwest High-Grade Zone and Aegean Zone.
SVL noted that the base-metal and gold bearing Bundarra zone remain open to the south and down-dip to the west of previous drilling, with BD20001 drilled in early 2020 proving the Bowdens system is developed extensively at depth to the west.
Image Source: Silver Mines Limited