Unico Silver (ASX:USL) says the final results from phase-two diamond drilling at its Cerro Leon Project in Argentina confirm “multiple new discoveries”.
The 9,143m drilled across 63 holes yielded the Savary, Kasia, MS Link and Silvia discoveries.
The Savary prospect returned a hit of 30m @ 293 grams per tonne silver equivalent from 92.6m, Kasia delivered 39m @ 150g/t from 60.6m, MS Link drilled 72.4m @ 83g/t from 46.6m and Silvia hit 12.8m @ 159g/t from 140.2m.
Meanwhile, the Karina prospect yielded more shallow oxide silver mineralisation, including 7.6m @ 980g/t silver equivalent from 11.4m and 1.7m @ 4,625g/t from 52m from within a broader intercept of 13m @ 772g/t from 42m.
Individual assays returned grades of as high as 5,638g/t silver.
Phase-two diamond drilling kicked off in January at Cerro Leon, with two rigs drilling 10,000m to test the vertical continuity of mineralisation across all priority prospects and expand the resource.
Managing Director Todd Williams says each priority target returned high-grade silver intercepts.
“Notably, Karina continues to impress with some of the highest-grade shallow oxide silver drilled to date,” he adds.
“Phase three is now underway, designed to convert mineralisation to indicated status and to unlock the broader scale of the Cerro Leon district — including new high-grade polymetallic and bulk tonnage targets such as MS Link.”
The phase-three program has been expanded to 6,500m following the latest results and will comprise a combination of reverse circulation and diamond drilling.
The Cerro Leon Project is located in the Santa Cruz region of Argentina, which Williams told Mining.com.au in March is one of Argentina’s pro-mining states, with an extremely low risk of an economic mineral discovery being blocked on political or environmental grounds.
Santa Cruz is host to majors such as Newmont (NYSE:NEM), AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU), Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS), and intermediate to junior mining companies like McEwen Mining (NYSE:MUX), Hochschild Mining (LSE:HOC), and Cerrado Gold (TSX-V:CERT).
Unico’s Joaquin and Cerro Leon projects are two of the largest pure-play silver resources, according to Williams.
The Cerro Leon Project was formed from three separate transactions between November 2022 and May 2024 and includes the Pinguino, Sierra Blanca and Conserrat districts.
The project hosts a total indicated and inferred resource of 16.5 million tonnes @ 172g/t for 91.3 million silver-equivalent ounces.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Unico Silver
