Silver Standard gains Texas silver project

Silver Standard (SSO-V) has agreed to acquire a majority stake in the Shafter property in Texas.

The junior will acquire 91.64 million shares (representing a 91.8% interest) of Silver Assets (cilv-o) for US$599,305 from Coastal Capital Partners and four other shareholders. The main asset is a 90.6% interest in a private company that owns the 3,400-acre Shafter silver property.

Silver Standard intends to acquire the remaining shares in Silver Assets, pushing the acquisition cost to US$654,000.

A January 2000 draft report, completed by Pincock Allen & Holt, estimated that the property contains a measured, indicated and inferred resource of 2.8 million tons grading 13.1 oz. silver per ton (at a 6-oz.-per-ton cutoff), equivalent to 36.1 million oz. The estimate is based on results from 14,570 samples taken during a 262,000-ft., 890-hole drill campaign.

Silver was discovered at Shafter in 1880. Production began in 1883 and continued, despite a break during the Depression, through 1942. More than 35 million oz. silver were hoisted from 2.4 million tons of ore. The current resource represents the downdip continuation of the limestone-hosted deposit.

Since 1977, US$30 million has been spent on exploration, development and permitting in an effort to return Shafter to production. A portion of the funds were used to sink a 1,000-ft. production shaft and a ventilation shaft. The work included 5,100 ft. of underground drilling and an 8,000-ton bulk sample. Metallurgical tests indicate that a conventional mill would recover more than 90% of the silver, and Silver Assets has already identified a suitable mill for sale that can handle 800 tons per day.