Kootenay Silver – High-Grade Maiden Resource At The Columba Project Contains 54 Moz at 284 gpt Silver And Big Expansion Potential
Jim McDonald, President and CEO of Kootenay Silver (TSX.V:KTN – OTCQX: KOOYF), joins me to unpack the news out June 17th announcing the completion of the high-grade maiden Mineral Resource Estimate on its 100%-owned Columba Silver Project, located in Chihuahua, Mexico.
Key takeaways from this Maiden Mineral Resource Estimate at the Columba Project:
- 1 Moz of silver, 25.2 Mlbs of lead, and 65.6 Mlbs of zinc (Inferred category)
- 92 Mt grading 284 gpt silver, 0.19% lead, and 0.50% zinc
- All the mineralized veins remain wide open to expansion along strike, to depth or both.
- Vein continuity is excellent
- 5 to 6 meters Vein width average across all zones
- Silver grades are excellent across the mineralized structures
We discuss the benefit of the 54 million ounce resource being in pure silver, but also still having extra lead and zinc mineralization above the headline number. Jim mentions that some areas of mineralization at depth may lend to higher pockets of base metals and will be explored with future drilling. With regards to the silver mineralization having the average grade of 284 grams per tonne (gpt), Jim puts this in context with other silver mines in Mexico and globally that are in production at much lower levels, and this is why the company used a 150 gpt economic mining cutoff grade for this resource.
The Company will continue with step out drilling of several kilometers of undrilled veins, as well as selective infill on wide-spaced intervals on the known D, B, F, I, and Lupe veins. Jim highlights that their exploration team has designed an additional 50,000 meters of drilling planned at Columba, with the first 20,000 to 30,000 meters focused on expanding the known resource.
Jim also compares Columba’s wide, high-grade intercepts to the other more bulk-tonnage resources that the Company has in their portfolio of other projects, outlining this being Kootenay’s most promising project to date; but also pointing out that Kootenay Silver’s combined resources at all projects is well over 300 million ounces of silver equivalent, and should have good leverage to rising underlying metals prices.
If you have any follow up questions for Jim please comment below or email us at Fleck@kereport.com or Shad@kereport.com.
- In full disclosure, Shad is a shareholder of Kootenay Silver at the time of this recording, and may choose to buy or sell shares at any time.
