Sierra Madre Gold and Silver (SM.V) is still firing on all cylinders as the company is simultaneously advancing its two main projects, Tepic and La Tigra. The delaying factor are the labs as the company is obviously at the mercy of the assay labs to report on assay results from drill programs and trenching programs.
At the flagship Tepic project, the company released excellent drill results earlier this month. Sierra was able to release the assay results from four more holes and all four holes encountered mineralization. Hole 14 was a very interesting one as it encountered two distinct zones of mineralization. At a depth of just 20.1 meters downhole the drill bit intersected 6.35 meters containing 352 g/t silver and 0.96 g/t gold for a total silver-equivalent grade of 656 g/t while just a little bit deeper, at a depth of just 61.5 meters down-hole, another 6 meter interval was encountered this time with an average grade of 470 g/t silver-equivalent. That interval was predominantly carried by a narrower but much higher grade zone of 2.3 meters containing 1,070 g/t silver equivalent (consisting of almost 800 g/t silver and just under 3.8 g/t gold).
As all four holes encountered mineralization, Sierra Madre’s drill program is very consistently hitting the veins at Tepic exactly where it expects to hit them. That by itself is an art as you can see the average width of the mineralized intervals is just 1.5-6.3 meters so it wouldn’t be too difficult to actually miss the mineralized zones. An additional bonus is the good understanding of the structures as Sierra Madre claims the true width is expected to be at least 90% of the reported intervals.
With a success ratio of 100% finding mineralization with a silver-equivalent grade exceeding 75 g/t and with a weighted average of just over 300 g/t silver-equivalent, the grade is exceeding the expectations (likely thanks to improved core recovery levels as previous exploration programs had to deal with poor core recovery). As some of the holes were drilled in areas outside of the historical resource estimate, the historical resources will now undoubtedly increase.
The (two) drill rigs have now moved to the La Tigra project where a maiden drill program is ongoing. Although the rig has already started drilling, Sierra Madre reported on the assay results of an underground trenching program at La Tigra where 154 channel samples were taken from the Level 200 area of the El Tigre mine.
The company also completed a few more surface trenches at La Tigra which also yielded good grades (although mainly gold-dominant).
La Tigra is currently being drilled by two rigs but one of those will soon be swapped out for a bigger rig better suitable for drilling at depth. Meanwhile, the team will work on the 300 level of the historical mine to complete an additional channel sampling program and to further define and refine drill targets.
Disclosure: The author has a long position in Sierra Madre Gold and Silver. Sierra Madre is a sponsor of the website. Please read our disclaimer.
