Vancouver — Mining has been an economic cornerstone in Durango state, Mexico, for more than 400 years, and junior companies such as Orko Silver (OK-V, OKOFF-O) hope to keep the tradition alive by advancing projects in historically prolific silver-mining regions of the state. Toward that end, the company has two drills turning non-stop at its cornerstone La Preciosa epithermal silver-gold project situated on the eastern side of the Sierra Madre Mountains, about 47 km northeast of the capital city of Durango.
Mineralization at La Preciosa was first discovered by Spanish conquistadors. Local miners carried out small-scale production at the Abundancia and La Gloria veins in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Mexican Revolution brought a halt to this work, and the project sat dormant until the 1970s when local miners resumed small-scale operations.
Orko now owns 100% of La Preciosa, and is earning a 75% interest in the adjacent Santa Monica project from Goldcorp (G-T, GG-N) by spending US$1.5 million on exploration. The company also has an option to earn a 75% interest in the adjacent San Juan property from Silver Standard Resources (SSO-T, SSRI-Q) by spending $750,000 on exploration.
Orko released an updated resource estimate for the project in September, resulting in a 30% boost over a previous estimate released earlier in the year. La Preciosa now has an outlined inferred resource of 3.42 million tonnes grading 235 grams silver per tonne and 0.435 gram gold, for a silver-equivalent grade of 261.1 grams per tonne. This translates into about 25.8 million ounces contained silver, plus just under 50,000 oz. gold. Lead and zinc contents were also reported, but were not used to estimate silver-equivalent grades for the project.
The updated resource estimate was based on 40 drill holes totalling 17,653 metres of core, mostly from the 2005 and this year’s campaigns. Average drill hole spacing is about 100 metres.
The drilling (and resource estimate) is for the Abundancia and La Gloria veins, which coalesce at depth. Drilling continues to test the strike length potential and the downdip projections, as well as additional veins.
In early October, Orko reported that drilling in the Zona Sur Sector of the La Preciosa deposit had returned the highest grades of silver ever reported from the property, at 1.14 grams gold and 3,830 grams silver per tonne, for a silver-equivalent grade of 3,898.4 grams. These results are from an oreshoot within the New Abundancia vein.
The company also reported that several holes have returned encouraging results from the Transversal vein, including 0.21 gram gold and 138.6 grams silver over 1.57 metres, and 0.09 gram gold and 145.9 grams silver over 3.45 metres. This vein is not included in the newly updated resource estimate.
The property hosts multiple veins within a structural zone traced on surface for more than 5 km. Individual veins have been traced for up to 1.2 km, but only Abundancia and La Gloria have been explored in detail.
A new prospecting discovery called the Nancy vein was recently added to the list of targets warranting further exploration. The Nancy vein is located southwest of the major veins at La Preciosa, and is believed to be similar to the La Gloria vein.
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