Pinnacle Silver and Gold Corp (PINN) has released its latest set of sampling results from the historic La Dura mine at the high-grade El Potrero gold-silver project in Durango, Mexico.
The identification of another zone of gold-silver extends the mineralized strike length along the Dos de Mayo vein structure to almost 500 metres, with significant gaps between the three principal mines that are slated for drill-testing.
The Dos de Mayo vein itself has never been previously drilled.
The La Dura mine consists of a main adit that follows the vein for approximately 60 metres along strike to the northwest of the portal, and two smaller adits about 10 metres above and to the southeast of the main adit.
These two smaller adits, one of which is consistently mineralized, are collectively called La Dura 2.
There has been less underground development at La Dura than at either of the Pinos Cuates or Dos de Mayo mines and the channel sampling here comprises only 146 of the 722 samples taken underground to date on the project.
Of those 146 samples, 40 were taken from the two small adits. The mineralized zone identified was sampled by six composite channels along an exposed 12 metre strike length, and has an average width of 1.3 metres and average grades of 1.98 grams per tonne gold and 98 grams silver, with individual grades running up to 4.51 grams gold and 269 grams silver over 0.5 metres.
Very fine visible gold was observed in places. Given that only 12 metres of the mineralized zone is exposed, there is significant potential to expand this with additional mine development and drilling.
“The discovery of this third zone of gold-silver mineralization along the Dos de Mayo vein is further evidence of the repeatability of these zones along strike,” said Robert Archer, Pinnacle’s chief executive.
“It appears that the main La Dura adit was developed in the wrong direction at that particular elevation, as it returned only anomalous grades, and the mineralization exposed at La Dura 2 was likely discovered later, as it has not been developed any further than this small exposure. As we know that there is some grade variability within the system, the 12 metre strike length and slightly lower grades than we have seen at the other mines suggests only that this exposure has just scratched the surface of this zone, and additional work will be needed to determine the ultimate extent of the mineralization. These preliminary grades at La Dura 2 are still comparable to other low-sulphidation epithermal systems in Mexico and serve to underscore the high-grade nature of the gold-silver mineralization defined to date on the project.”
View from Vox
There is approximately 150 metres between La Dura and the Pinos Cuates mine, where sampling returned grades of up to 85 grams gold and 520 grams silver in the summer. The plan now is to drill test this area for additional mineralized zones, and there’s also approximately 120 metres of untested strike potential between Pinos Cuates and the Dos de Mayo mine to the southwest. This all adds to the upside on offer at El Potrero and means that the coming months could well deliver further value for Pinnacle shareholders.