Silvercorp Metals Inc. (TSX:SVM)(NYSE:SVM) has provided the drilling results from the 2010 drill program on the Silvertip silver-zinc-lead project in Northern British Columbia, Canada.
This drill program focused on extensions to the east and south of the main ore body where 21 historic drill holes yielded significant silver, lead and zinc. The Resource Estimate completed in March, 2010 did not include results from these historic holes due to their wide spacing. The 2010 Drill program was successful defining and upgrading the silver-lead-zinc resources to ensure they will be included in and will increase the new resource estimate which is currently underway.
A total of 10,913 meters (m) in 36 diamond drill holes was completed, of which, 24 holes reached their planned depth while 12 holes were abandoned. The high drilling success rate of 67% (16 hits out of 24 drill holes demonstrates that the high grade mineralization is continuous in these areas, and the drilling has expanded the current resource blocks in the March 2010 Resource Estimate. In addition, a new zone (drill hole EW8.4-10-28) was discovered 300m south of the existing 65 Zone, which could add a significant amount of high grade resources to the project.
Significant Results from the drill holes include:
- Hole EW8.4-10-28 intersected two mineralized zones: 13.30m containing 289 grams/tonne (g/t) Ag (9.3 ounces/tonne (oz/t)), 5.33% Pb, and 8.65% Zn; 4.10m grading 286 g/t (9.2 oz/t) Ag, 4.63% Pb, and 11.59% Zn;
- Hole EW3-10-22 intersected 2.51m of mineralized zone containing 696 g/t (22.4 oz/t) Ag, 12.96% Pb, and 14.48% Zn;
- Hole EW4-10-16 intersected 1.87m of mineralized zone containing 562 g/t (18.1 oz/t) Ag, 13.55% Pb, and 7.84% Zn;
- Hole EW4-10-19B intersected 2.74m of mineralized zone containing 289 g/t (9.3 oz/t) Ag, 4.60% Pb, and 17.04% Zn;
Exploration Results
Three types of mineralization were identified in drill holes: contact-zone; exhalite; and reef types. The contact-zone mineralization forms high grade silver, lead and zinc stratiform bodies at a contact between the Earn Group sandstones and limestones and represents the main target for this drilling program. The reef-style mineralization occurs in the limestones below the contact-zone mineralization and may represent fill-in mineralization of paleo-reefs. These two types of mineralization were included in the March 2010 Resource Estimate. The exhalite mineralization occurs as continuous stratabound layers in the sandstones and argillites above the contact-zone mineralization and hosts high zinc concentrations over potentially mineable widths, but was not included in the March 2010 Resource Estimate due to relatively lower silver grade.
For this drill program, a 50m drill hole spacing was used along the east side of the existing resources at about 50m to 200m from the existing resource. Drill hole EW8.4-10-28 was drilled approximately 300m southwest from the 65 Zone resource blocks and is of a similar nature (high grade, wide but irregular in shape) to the 65 Zone, consisting of contact-zone mineralization and underneath reef-style mineralization.
Accordingly, the historical drilling and the current drilling results will be re-examined to estimate the mineral resources represented by the exhalite mineralization.
Quality Control
The company has implemented a quality control program to ensure best practices in sampling and analysis of the samples. Drill cores are NQ2 in size and drill core samples were taken from sawn half core for every 1.0m or limited by apparent wall rock and mineralization contact. The samples were shipped directly in security sealed plastic pails to ALS Chemex in White Horse, Yukon Territory, Canada (Certification ISO 17025), located approximately 325km to the west, northwest of the Silvertip property site.
The core is rigorously tested with external standards, blanks and duplicates (one every 10 samples) and these were then plotted on a 1, 2, and 3 standard deviation plot to test for irregularities. The standard order with ALS Chemex is Au-AA25 an Ag, Pb, Zn, Cu, S and As via the OG62 procedure with Pb and Zn overlimits by Pb-VOL70 and Zn-VOL50 as needed. 10% of the samples received are sent to a second laboratory as a QA measure.
Frank Hrdy is the Qualified Person on the project as defined under National Instrument 43-101. He has verified the information and has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.