Vancouver – A preliminary silver resource containing 41.1 million ounces indicated and another 13.1 million inferred has been outlined on Silver Standard’s (SSO-V) La Pitarrilla project in Durango State, Mexico. The company says that based on exploration costs, La Pitarrilla has had a discovery cost of less than 2 cents (U.S.) per resource ounce of silver.
Silver Standard staked the La Pitarrilla property, which covers 113 square km about 170 km northwest of Durango, in 2002. Since last fall, drilling has been steadily outlining the three silver zones and one gold zone on the property.
The independent resource for the Cordon Colorado and the smaller Pena Dyke Zone was based on over 11,000 metres of reverse circulation drilling in 97 holes. Both zones are amenable to bulk mining methods.
The independent preliminary block model resource estimate is based on assays from 81 drillholes and uses a cut-off grade of 40 grams. It does not include the all infill and extension drilling completed to date at the Cordon Colorado and Pena Dyke zones which are still open.
The Cordon Colorado zone has 8.3 million tonnes grading 123.2 grams for 32.9 million oz. contained in the indicated resource category and 2.6 million tonnes grading 121.9 grams for 10.2 million oz. silver in the inferred.
The Pena Dyke has 2.0 million tonnes grading 128.4 grams for 10.2 million contained ounces in the indicated category and another 0.85 million tonnes grading 115.5 grams for 3.2 million oz. contained in the inferred.
A preliminary metallurgical investigation based on 17 composite drill cutting samples from high, medium and low grade mineralization was done for both zones. Conventional milling pretreated with sulphur dioxide increased recoveries for medium- and high-grade mineralization from 68% to 89%.
A road is being constructed to access a third silver zone at Javelina Creek some 2 km east of Pena Dyke. Drilling is expected to commence there in the second quarter of 2004.
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