(TheNewswire)
Toronto – TheNewswire - June 13,2022: AbraSilver Resource Corp. (TSXV:ABRA ) ; ( OTC:ABBRF) ("AbraSilver" or the “Company”) is pleased to provide an update on theCompany’s ongoing, successful exploration program at its flagshipDiablillos project and an overview of upcoming milestones anddeliverables.
Key Highlights
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Phase II drill program successfully completed with~20,000 metre drilled in 77 holes
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New Phase III 15,000 metre drill campaign underway totest multiple high-priority targets
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Pre-Feasibility Study (“PFS”) on-track to add valueat Diablillos
John Miniotis, President and CEO, commented, “We arepleased to provide an update and report on recent highlights andnear-term upcoming potential value creating catalysts. Our drillprogram at Diablillos continues to outperform all expectations and weremain truly excited by the potential emerging from the project, whichbodes well for the updated Mineral Resource statement scheduled forlater this year. Looking ahead, there are plenty of exciting near-termcatalysts for the Company including: ongoing drill results fromDiablillos; initial drill results from our La Coipita project; and anupdated Mineral Resource estimate and completion of the PFS study atDiablillos.”
David O’Connor, Chief Geologist, commented, “We arevery pleased that our Phase II drill program, which was aimed atexpanding the existing large Mineral Resource base at Oculto has beenvery successful, with plenty more results yet to come. As a next step,we continue to focus on unlocking the significant explorationpotential at Oculto, where mineralisation remains open in bothdirections along a 2km long strike, as well as testing several newsilver and gold targets areas within the broader Diablillos landpackage”.
Diablillos Drill ProgramUpdate
The Company’s Phase II, 20,000-metre drill programhas now been successfully completed, having delivered numerouspositive results throughout the past year. At this time, assayresults for the final 23 holes from this campaign remain pending andare expected to be received over the next several weeks. Once allassay results from the Phase II program are received, the Company willprepare and publish an updated Mineral Resource Estimate, which isanticipated to be completed in September 2022. The best results todate from the Phase II program are summarized in Table 1,below.
Table 1 – Diablillos Project –Top Phase II Drill Intercepts Reported to Date
Hole | From (m) | To (m) | Zone | Interval (m) | Ag (g/t) | Au (g/t) | AgEq 1 (g/t) | AuEq 1 (g/t) |
22-004 | 131.0 | 271.0 | Tesoro | 140.0 | 219.0 | 1.17 | 300.9 | 4.30 |
21-038 | 112.0 | 221.3 | Tesoro | 109.3 | 176.8 | 1.53 | 283.9 | 4.06 |
22-005 | 84.0 | 151.5 | Southwest | 67.5 | 157.4 | 1.95 | 293.9 | 4.20 |
21-067 | 242.0 | 308.0 | Northeast | 66.0 | 57.0 | 1.90 | 190.0 | 2.71 |
21-045 | 108.0 | 172.5 | Southwest | 64.5 | 125.6 | 0.61 | 171.4 | 2.28 |
21-064 | 86.0 | 147.0 | Northeast | 61.0 | 140.2 | 0.71 | 189.9 | 2.71 |
21-068 | 89.0 | 146.0 | Southwest | 57.0 | 108.0 | 1.47 | 210.9 | 3.01 |
21-022 | 192.0 | 245.0 | Northeast | 53.0 | 33.3 | 2.49 | 207.6 | 2.97 |
1 AgEq& AuEq calculations for reported drill results are based on USD$1,750/oz Au, and $25.00/oz Ag. The calculations assume 100%metallurgical recovery and are indicative of gross in-situ metal valueat the indicated metal prices.
Fully-Funded Phase III Exploration ProgramUnderway
The Company has commenced an additional 15,000-metrePhase III exploration program with two diamond drill rigs designed tofurther expand Mineral Resources across the Diablillos property. Thesize of the drill program and the number of drill rigs may beexpanded, if warranted.
The Phase III drill program will focus on the followinghigh-priority targets:
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Oculto Northeast Zone: Ongoing drilling northeast of Oculto continues to intersectseveral zones of high-grade mineralised breccia up to 500 metresbeyond the current conceptual open pit boundary. Additional drillingis expected to continue to expand the Mineral Resource base in thisarea which may support a larger open pit and/or associated deeper,underground extraction.
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Oculto Southwest Zone : Recent drilling southwest of Oculto has demonstrated thatthe Main Breccia zone extends beyond the current conceptual open pitboundary and is well mineralised in this area. Additional drillingcould demonstrate substantial potential for shallow mineralisation atopen-pittable depths in this new high-priority target zone.
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Cerro Bayo : Arecent reinterpretation of geology has emphasised the possibility ofshallow mineralisation in the Cerro Bayo area located approximately500 metres east of the conceptual open pit boundary. A soil samplingprogram was recently completed in this zone to augment a previoussurvey which obtained highly anomalous gold results.
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Cerro Blanco / Cerro Viejo PorphyryTargets : The Cerro Blanco / Cerro Viejo areais located 4 kilometres northeast of Oculto. The Company plans todrill select deeper holes to explore for an underlying porphyrysystem. Gold mineralization in this area is typically associated withpyrite in quartz-sericite alteration, which is interpreted aspotentially representing the upper part of a mineralised porphyrysystem.
Figure 1 – Phase III ExplorationKey Target Areas
Figure 2 – Cerro Blanco / CerroViejo Targets: Gold withQuartz-Sericite Alteration in Historical Drilling
Pre-Feasibility Study Remains onTrack for Q1/2023
The Diablillos PFSremains on track to be completed in the first quarter of 2023. ThePFS will be supported by a total of more than 300 drill holes and100,000 metres of drilling and two programs ofdetailed metallurgical testwork. Several opportunities are currentlybeing evaluated which may result in an improvement in the economics ofthe project, including:
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Metallurgical Test Work: A second detailed metallurgical test work campaign is wellunderway, which along with the first campaign, will serve as the basisfor process optimization and an expected improvement in the recoveryrates for silver.
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Processing: Various trade-off studies are being conducted to determinethe optimal throughput rate which are expected to be above thatreported in the Preliminary Economic Assessment.
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Geothech and Hydrology: An initial geotechnical drilling campaign has been completed.Preliminary results indicate that the open pit slopes can likely besteepened from those assumed in the PEA, resulting in increased accessto deeper high-grade mineralization near the base of the open pit. Ageophysical campaign for additional water resources has been finalizedwith results expected shortly. The campaign is expected to determinethe water availability for increased plant throughput.
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Capex and Opex: The following design activities are being considered whichmay allow for a reduction in capital and operating costs:
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An optimized plot plan and camp layout have beenfinalized resulting in reduced transportation distances.
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Open pit cover material is being tested geotechnicallyto be used as potential road and platform backfill, potentiallyreducing hauling distances during construction and the open pitpre-stripping.
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Power generation strategy being reviewed to includepotential renewable energy sources.
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About Diablillos
The 80 km 2 Diablillos property is located in theArgentine Puna region - the southern extension of the Altiplano ofsouthern Peru, Bolivia, and northern Chile - and was acquired from SSRMining Inc. by the Company in 2016. There are several known mineralzones on the Diablillos property, with the Oculto zone being the mostadvanced with over 100,000 metres drilled to date. Oculto is ahigh-sulphidation epithermal silver-gold deposit derived from remnanthot springs activity following Tertiarty-age local magmatic andvolcanic activity. Comparatively nearby examples of high sulphidationepithermal deposits include: Yanacocha (Peru); El Indio (Chile);Lagunas Nortes/Alto Chicama (Peru) Veladero (Argentina); and Filo delSol (Argentina).
The current Mineral Resource estimate for the OcultoDeposit is shown in Table 2 below:
Table 2 - 2021 Mineral ResourceEstimate for the Oculto Deposit, Diablillos Project
Category | Tonnage (000 t) | Ag (g/t) | Au (g/t) | Contained Ag (000 oz Ag) | Contained Au (000 oz Au) |
Measured | 8,235 | 124 | 0.98 | 32,701 | 259 |
Indicated | 32,958 | 54 | 0.70 | 57,464 | 744 |
Measured & Indicated | 41,193 | 68 | 0.76 | 90,165 | 1,002 |
Inferred | 2,884 | 34 | 0.70 | 3,181 | 66 |
Effective September 8, 2021. The Mineral Resourceestimate and supporting Technical Report are N.I. 43-101 compliant.Full details of the Mineral Resources are available in a Company newsrelease dated September 15, 2021. For additional information pleasesee Technical Report on the Diablillos Project, Salta Province,Argentina, dated October 28, 2021, completed by Mining Plus, andavailable on www.SEDAR.com.
Qualified Persons
David O’Connor P.Geo., Chief Geologist forAbraSilver, is the qualified person as defined by National Instrument43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has reviewed andapproved the scientific and technical information in this newsrelease.
About AbraSilver
AbraSilver is a well-funded silver-gold focusedadvanced-stage exploration company. The Company is rapidly advancingits 100%-owned Diablillos silver-gold project in the mining-friendlySalta province of Argentina, which has a current Measured andIndicated Mineral Resource of over 90 million ounces of silver and 1.0million ounces of gold. The updated PEA study completed in November2021 demonstrates that Diablillos has the potential to be ahighly-economic project. The Company is led by an experiencedmanagement team and has long-term supportive shareholders includingMr. Eric Sprott. In addition, AbraSilver owns a portfolio ofearlier-stage copper-gold projects including the La Coipitacopper-gold project in the San Juan province of Argentina. AbraSilveris listed on the TSX-V under the symbol “ABRA” and in the U.S.under the symbol “ABBRF”.
For further information please visit the AbraSilverResource website at www.abrasilver.com , ourLinkedIn page at , and follow us on Twitter at
Alternatively please contact:
John Miniotis, President and CEO
Tel: +1 416-306-8334
Cautionary Statements
This news release includes certain"forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadiansecurities legislation. Forward-looking statements are necessarilybased upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, whileconsidered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks,uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual resultsand future events to differ materially from those expressed or impliedby such forward-looking statements. All statements that address futureplans, activities, events or developments that the Company believes,expects or anticipates will or may occur are forward-lookinginformation. There can be no assurance that such statements will proveto be accurate, as actual results and future events could differmaterially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly,readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or reviseany forward-looking statements, whether as a result of newinformation, future events or otherwise, except as required bylaw.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange norits Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in thepolicies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for theadequacy or accuracy of this news release
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