Fury completes Taylor silver mine purchase

Vancouver – Fury Explorations (FUR-V, FURXF-O) is inching closer towards a production scenario with the recent closure of its purchase deal on the historic Taylor silver mine and mill complex near Ely, Nevada.

The deal initially saw Fury purchase private company Anglo Nevada Metals back in early-2006 – taking over an option on the project – and recently completing its total payments of US$2.5 million for the historic operation.

In late-2007 Fury tabled its redevelopment timeline aiming for a production start in the first quarter of 2009. It is working on finishing a pre-feasibility study, securing its final necessary permits, completing a refurbishment of the mill complex and upgrading the tailings area.

It has reviewed 5.8 million tonnes of measured and indicated resource in the deposit grading about 79 grams silver per tonne for roughly 14.9 million contained oz. An additional 690,000 inferred tonnes at 87 grams silver (about 1.9 million contained oz.) has also been tabled. The resource tally uses a 41 gram silver cut-off grade.

The resource is within a modeled pit-shell of about 15 million tonnes of material for a 1.3-1 waste-to-ore ratio.

Mineralization is hosted in brecciated limestones capped by a shale unit with silver occurring in fractures and veins within the limestone. The deposit averages about 15 metres in thickness and is near surface (average overburden of less than 10 metres).

Operations at Taylor ceased back in 1991 due to weak silver prices. Sporadic underground mining occurred from the late-1800s through to 1979, when Alta Gold commenced an open pit operation targeting several million tonnes of open pit resource averaging about 110 grams silver per tonne.

The processing complex includes primary and secondary crushers, eight ball mills with a combined 1,200 tonne-per-day capacity, and flotation and cyanide leach plants on about 360 hectares of mining claims. Additionally, Alta expanded the mill complex in 1989 to include a copper, lead and zinc flotation circuit to process ore from the nearby Ward mine.

A recent plan to merge Fury with Golden Predator Mines, a spin-out company formed to hold the gold assets of Energy Metals that was acquired by Uranium One (UUU-T, SXRZF-O), has been terminated.

Shares of Fury have recently traded around the 60-level — giving the aspiring silver producer a $16.4-million market capitalization based on its 27.6 million shares outstanding. The stock has a 52-week trading range of 46-$1.21.