Tinka quick to infer silver resource in Peru (April 24, 2008)

Vancouver – One small drill program has produced a significant inferred resource estimate for Tinka Resource‘s (TK-V) Colquipucro silver project in Peru.

The first resource estimate for Tinka’s wholly-owned property calculated an inferred resource of 5.7 million tonnes grading 111.4 grams silver per tonne. Silver mineralization is hosted by a faulted and fractured Chimu formation sandstone. A portion of the sandstone formation immediately north of the main zone has not yet seen a drill hole and the resource estimate report indicated that area held potential for another 2 million tonnes of mineralization of a similar grade.

In a 15-hole program totalling 2,670 metres of diamond drilling all but one drill hole intersected significant silver values, often over substantial widths. For example, hole 11 returned several intercepts: 95 grams silver over 44 metres from surface, 91 grams silver over 16 metres from 94 metres downhole, and 551 grams silver over 8 metres from 138 metres depth. Hole 4, collared 60 metres up dip, encountered 105 grams silver over 28 metres from 10 metres depth followed by 625 grams silver over 10 metres from 118 metres downhole.

The drilling identified mineralization over a north-south strike length of 500 metres and a width of 200 metres, with the depth of the mineralized zone ranging from 100 to 200 metres. Interestingly, the Chimu formation if known to host bulk-tonnage gold deposits elsewhere in Peru but Colquipurco appears to be the first Chimu-hosted bulk tonnage silver deposit.

The underlying Pucara group limestone often hosts base metal mineralization. While many of Tinka’s holes were too short to properly probe the base metal potential of the Pucara limestone good results to date include 12 metres grading 4.4% zinc from 160 metres in hole 13 and 24 metres grading 2.2% zinc from 158 metres in hole 15.

High-grade silver was mined from a series of parallel fault structures at Colquipurca during early Spanish colonial times. A more extensive system of underground workings was put in place in the 19th and 20th centuries.

When Tinka picked up the project, an initial prospecting trip turned up numerous gossanous mantos and veins over a 20-sq. km area within a limestone, shale, and carbonaceous sandstone sequence. Tinka then took a series of samples from an old adit. The company found the banded sandstone host rock had been extensively fractured between fault zones, resulting in a series of parallel, closely-spaced fractures resembling a stockwork texture.

Samples from the adit revealed high-grade silver mineralization along the fault zone but also over large widths in the intervening rock. For example, one 25-metre length averaged 171 grams silver per tonne while another 7.5-metre segment returned 103 grams silver.

A surface trench above the adit returned similar mineralized intervals, adding a depth dimension of up to 100 metres to the mineralized zone. The results encouraged Tinka to stake an additional six claims around its property and complete an induced polarization survey. The survey indicated a zone of high chargeability from surface to a depth of 150 metres over an area some 400 metres by 700 metres, lying north-south.

Tinka has also identified two new areas of surface mineralization at Colquipucra called Ayawilca and Colquisur.

At Ayawilca, roughly 2 km southeast of the main zone, coincident silver-lead-zinc soil anomalies cover an area roughly three times the size of Zone 1. Similarly to Zone 1, the anomalous soil at Ayawilca overlays a series of parallel east-west trending fault lineaments in sandstone.

Colquisur sits in a valley immediately south of Zone 1. There is extensive overburden but preliminary mapping and sampling indicate the overburden covers Puraca limestone. Tinka plans to test this area for possible base metal mineralization.

News of the Colquipurca resource estimate gave Tinka a slight boost, closing up 2 at 30. The company has a 52-week trading range of 22 to 60 and has 22.3 million shares issued.