Results From 2018 Drill Program At Silver Sand

 

VANCOUVER, BC - New Pacific Metals Corp. reported the first batch of drill results from its wholly-owned Silver Sand Project in Potosí Department, Bolivia. The drilling program commenced in mid-October 2017.  A total of 55,010 metres in 195 HQ size diamond core drill holes had been completed by mid-December 2018.  The drill program covers an area of approximately 1,600 m long in the north-south direction and up to 800 m wide in the east-west direction.  The holes were drilled along northeast 60 degree oriented sections with a 50 m spacing between the sections.  Most drill holes are drilled at dip angle of 45 degrees to penetrate the principal trend of the mineralized structure zones with an average hole length of approximately 285 m.  To date, assay results of drill core samples of 98 holes have been received and analyzed, of which 94 holes intercepted silver mineralization.

Based on the drilling results, the drill holes usually penetrate first through an up to 50 m thick layer of reddish siltstone and mudstone units of Cretaceous Tarapaya Formation, then into massive altered white color arenites or sandstones units of the Cretaceous La Puerta Formation, where silver mineralization occurs.  At the contact of these two units, massive pyrite mineralization of less than two metres in thickness, typically occurs.  Tin mineralization in the district is often associated with massive pyrite.  At depth, many drill holes end at the reddish sandstones units of the Cretaceous La Puerta Formation.  This Cretaceous Formations sit unconformably on a basement of tightly folded and faulted Paleozoic marine clastic sediments.

The mineralized sandstone and siltstone units of the Cretaceous Formations are shallow dipping or sub-horizontal, and gently folded into open synclines and anticlines with their hinges shallowly plunging to North-North-West (NNW) direction.  To the north of Silver Sand, the Cretaceous sediments were intruded and cut by numerous porphyritic dacitic sills and dykes of Miocene age, which are believed to be closely associated with silver mineralization in the district.

Silver mineralization is observed to be associated with fractures and alterations in the sandstones units, which were bleached white due to sericite alteration of original reddish sandstones, resulting in a sub-horizontal mineralizing zone of up to more than two hundred metres in thickness beneath the Tarapaya red siltstone and mudstone.  The mineralized fractures generally extend NNW, sub-vertically and slightly dipping west.  The mineralized bodies were detected by drilling within an area of up to 1,600 m long in north-south direction and 800 m wide in east-west direction within the Silver Sand property limit and remain open to both the north and the west.  Mineralizing bodies were oxidized to various extents to depth.

Silver mineralization is characterized by sheeted veins, stockwork veinlets, crackle veins and breccia zones of sulfosalts and sulfides containing silver in altered sandstones.  The most common silver-containing sulfosalt is freibergite, associated with a small amount of miargyrite, polybasite, bournonite, boulangerite, andorite and bismuthinite.

Using the section 60 as a dividing line, to its south, Tarapaya red siltstones and mudstones were mostly eroded away and massive whitish altered and fractured sandstones of the La Puerta Formation exposed at surface.  Extensive mining remains of adits, drifts and stopes of colonial times exist at the steep slopes and cliffs that have more than 150 m relief with the workings extending into the mountain.  Drilling in this area has hit many of these ancient underground workings.  Silver mineralization to the south of section 60 was outlined by drilling an area of approximately 500 m long and 150 m wide the altered quartz sandstones of the La Puerta Formation, extending from surface to a depth of more than 300 m.

To the north of section 60, drilling covered an area of approximately 1,100 m long north-south and 800 m wide in the east-west direction.  Drilling in this area intercepted mineralized fracture zones right beneath the Tarapaya reddish siltstones and mudstones.  The mineralization could extend from near surface to a depth up to more than 250 m.  In comparison to the south of section 60, only a few ancient underground mining workings were encountered during drilling.  Mineralization remains open along strike and at depth in both the southern area and the northern area.

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