Deep high-grade silver, gold buoys Great Panther

Vancouver – Underground drilling by Great Panther Resources (GPR-T, GPRLF-O) at its Guanajuato silver mine in central Mexico has extended the depth of high-grade silver and gold mineralization to at least 600 metres depth roughly 170 metres below the current deepest workings.

Speculation the deep intercepts could translate into a significant resource boost at the deposit spurred investors that rallied the company’s stock 20% in February 26th trading to close up 20 at $1.21 per share on strong volume.

The core drill program tested down-dip continuity, along with the northwestern limit, of the steeply southeast plunging Cata Clavo high-grade ore shoot at Guanajuato. Seven sub-parallel zones of economic grade — the Hanging Wall 1, Contact, Madre 1 through 4, and Footwall 1 — were intersected in the program. Results include:

• Hole EUG07-001 Intersected 3.3 metres (true width) in the Contact zone grading 279 grams silver per tonne and 1 gram gold per tonne, including a 0.5-metre section of 1,250 grams silver and 4.5 grams gold; followed by a deeper 2.9-metre interval of 609 grams silver and 1.9 grams gold in the Madre 2 zone;
• Hole EUG07-002 Cut a narrow 0.6-metre (true width) intercept of 5,773 grams silver and 15.5 grams gold in the Hanging Wall 1 zone;
• Hole EUG07-004 Intercepted several mineralized intervals including a 2-metre (true width) section of the Contact zone running 683 grams silver and 3.1 grams gold; 0.7 metre of 1,168 grams silver and 5.1 grams gold in the Madre 1 zone; and an 8.4-metre composite interval averaging 329 grams silver and 0.9 gram gold (comprised of 1.5 metres across the Madre 2 vein grading 1,033 grams silver and 2.9 grams gold, 1.7 metres of the Madre 3 vein grading 179 grams silver and 0.5 gram gold, and 1.2 metres in Madre 4 at 622 grams silver plus 1.5 grams gold).

The hanging wall rocks are intrusive diorite in contact with footwall argillites. The Contact zone is in close proximity to the diorite-argillite contact while the Madre 1-4 and Footwall 1 zones are within the argillite. The zones all contain pyrite and argentite (silver sulphide), and are within a package of intense silicification, brecciation, and quartz-vein flooding up to 60 metres thick.

Great Panther operates three mines (Valenciana, Cata and Rayas) at its Guanajuato complex — all situated along the main Veta Madre (Mother Lode) structure that trends northwest-southeast through the district for roughly 25 km. Silver and gold mineralization also occurs in quartz veins that parallel Veta Madre, and in stockworks on both sides of the structure.

The company commenced commercial operations at Guanajuato in 2006 with the mine churning out 710,903 oz. silver equivalent last year.

Silver was discovered in the Guanajuato Mining District in the mid-1500s with total production to date estimated at over one billion oz. silver plus several million oz. gold.

Great Panther also operates its Topia silver-lead-zinc mine, in Mexico’s Durango State, that produced 625,726 oz. silver equivalent in 2007.