Kootenay Silver Proves Up 92 Million Ounces
VANCOUVER, BC - While many metal exploration companies struggled in 2013, Kootenay Silver built a 92 million ounce resource and forged a partnership with Agnico-Eagle Mines who invested $4.7 million after a six month due diligence on the project.
Agnico-Eagle is a $5.2 billion company with global operations. Its 2013 production guidance was 1,060,000 oz of gold at a cash cost of $690 an ounce. AEM has declared a cash dividend for 31 consecutive years.
"We are pleased to be involved with the advancement of Promontorio," stated Sean Boyd, President and CEO of Agnico-Eagle, "a project that will continue to benefit from Kootenay's capable exploration team."
Kootenay Silver's flagship asset is Promontorio, located in the state of Sonora, Mexico, approximately 75 km northeast of Ciudad.
The mineralization at Promontorio is hosted in a diatreme breccias complex, measuring 3.5 by 1.8 km in size. Diatreme complexes are known to host monster deposits of precious and base metals. Mexican examples include the Penasquito project with 17.8 million Proven & Probable ounces of silver, and the Pitarrilla project with 643M oz. of Measured & Indicated Silver.
At Promontorio, the mineralization is centered on multi-stage breccias and peripheral stock-work zones. Drilling has been concentrated at the Pit and NE zones. Both zones are open along strike and at depth offering the potential for significant resource expansion.
"Mexico is a mature mining jurisdiction with high mineral endowments and high discovery rates," said Jim McDonald, President and CEO. "In a short period of time Kootenay has proven up 92 million measured and indicated ounces."
The Promontorio property has been mined historically going back to the 1920s. A small open pit open pit operation ran from 1988-1991, extracting about 50,000 tones of ore.
"Two things attracted us to the Promontorio project," states McDonald, "One - good grades from historical drilling. Secondly - it appeared to be a Breccia-hosted ore as opposed to a vein type deposit. This gave us confidence that the mineralisation has the potential to expand into a large tonnage deposit."