The estimate utilizes a net smelter return cut-off at $100/t with updated metal pricing. The new numbers have a 2.6-million-tonne increase in indicated resources to 3.46 million tonnes averaging 189 g/t silver, 2.13 g/t gold, 0.24% copper, 0.6% lead, and 3.5% zinc (565 g/t silver-equivalent or 6.9 g/t gold-equivalent) containing: 21.0 million oz. of silver; 237,000 oz. of gold; 18 million lb. of copper; 48 million lb. of lead; and 267 million lb. of zinc.
This equates to 62.8 million oz. silver-equivalent or 767,000 oz. of gold-equivalent and a 1.1 million increase in inferred resources to 1.9 million tonnes averaging 162 g/t silver, 0.80 g/t gold, 0.23% copper, 0.5% lead, and 2.0% zinc (356g/t silver-equivalent or 4.3g/t gold-equivalent) containing; 10.3 million oz. of silver; 50,000 oz. of gold; 10 million lb. of copper; 23 million lb. of lead; and 84 million lbs of zinc. This equates to 22.5 million oz. silver-equivalent or 273,000 oz. of gold-equivalent.
The updated resource estimate incorporates an additional 25,659 metres of core drilling completed in 2020-22 and updated metal recoveries and pricing.
“At the time we assumed management of the company in Q3 of 2019, we felt there were clear opportunities to quickly add significantly to the 2019 MRE at Silver Queen, and we are proud to report our success at a very low cost of $0.15/oz. of added silver-equivalent or $11/oz of added gold-equivalent,” president Joe Kizis said in a news release.
The estimate remains open for additional delineation west of the camp target and within the Sveinson target. In addition, there are several targets that have only been tested by a few drill holes and remain very attractive areas for new discoveries and resource increase.”