San Ignacio Mine Surface Drill Program Intersections
VANCOUVER - Great Panther Silver Limited reported high grade gold and silver intercepts from the first six holes in the current surface diamond drill program at its San Ignacio satellite mine, in Mexico. Results are highlighted by a 7.45 meter (5.26 meter true width) intersection of 1,133g/t silver and 6.86g/t gold in hole ESI14-120. This zone contained a 0.5 meter section of mineralization that assayed 11,951g/t silver and 48.2g/t gold, the highest assays ever received from the San Ignacio property.
The first hole in the program, ESI14-117, returned an intercept of 244g/t silver and 7.42g/t gold over 8.95 meters (7.75 meter true width), while hole ESI14-118 returned 130g/t silver and 4.94g/t gold over 7.70 meters (6.98 meter true width), both in the Intermediate vein. These holes appear to represent the southerly strike extension of the mineralization in 2013 hole ESI13-106 that returned 24.60 meters (15.81 meters true width) of 263g/t silver and 7.27g/t gold.
"This is an exceptional start to the drill program," stated Robert Archer, President and CEO. "While we were confident of extending the mineralization to the south of the existing resource block, many of these intercepts are of grades and widths better than those within the Mineral Resource Estimate for the Intermediate vein."
The current 3,500 meter surface drill program commenced early in October and is focused on the Intermediate and Melladito veins south of the present mineral resource block for 300 meters, and under historic workings dating back to the 19th century. The six holes drilled to date have extended the mineralization for 130 meters south of the existing resource block. In addition, the southerly extension of the Nombre de Dios vein will be tested, and some fill-in of the Nombre de Dios II vein will be completed. The known strike extent of the veins on the property is approximately 4,000 meters so there is still significant expansion potential beyond this program. A second drill has been added in order to finish the program before year-end.
The San Ignacio Mine entered commercial production in June as a satellite operation to the main Guanajuato Mine. It is currently operating at approximately 200 tonnes per day, with ore being trucked 22 kilometers to the Company's Cata processing plant. As mineralization is close to surface, access and mine development is provided by a main ramp with auxiliary production levels. The closest of the new exploration holes, ESI14-117, is only about 45 meters south and at the same elevation as the existing production level. Consequently, these new results can be used for follow up underground drilling and development in 2015.