Pinnacle Silver and Gold (PINN ) has discovered previously unknown silver-lead-zinc mineralization on the southern block of its high-grade El Potrero gold-silver project in Durango, Mexico.
The discovery was made during the first few weeks of a mapping and prospecting program designed to follow up on shafts, adits and prospecting pits, the existence of which had been inferred from the airborne LiDAR survey recently completed over the property.
The LiDAR survey was flown over the entire 1,074 hectares and confirmed known structural trends, outlined previously unknown structures, and identified a total of six shafts, 64 adits and 51 prospecting pits on the two claim blocks comprising the project.
Follow up field work began in early February on the southern Maria Fernanda 2 (MF2) claim block, where three shafts, 14 adits and 22 pits were apparent.
On the first pass of follow up work, several outcrops with silver-lead-zinc sulphides in silicified breccia veins hosted by porphyritic andesite were observed and sampled. Individual assays up to 266 grams per tonne silver, 4.39% lead and 2.89% zinc were obtained from channel samples up to 0.9 metres in length.
This new polymetallic mineralization may be related to the Topia district, which is only four kilometres away.
“We were initially impressed with the prospectivity of the project implied by the LiDAR, and now the identification of mineralized vein material in the artisanal workings is a testament to the effectiveness of the survey,” said Robert Archer, Pinnacle’s chief executive.
“The combination of leading-edge technology, superb interpretive skills by our consultant at GeoCloud Analytics of Melbourne, Australia, and basic ‘boots-on-the-ground’ follow up prospecting have led to the discovery of a zone of polymetallic mineralization that we were previously unaware of. This is exploration at its best. All of the mineralization on the northern ‘El Potrero’ block is purely gold and silver with no base metals, so this new discovery represents an entirely new target for us on the project. Having said that, all four of the operating mines surrounding the project are polymetallic so this mineralization is not entirely surprising, and we look forward to further defining the extent of this exciting new discovery.”
View from Vox
Many of those that now comprise the Pinnacle team worked to develop the nearby Topia mine some years ago, so there’s a great deal of familiarity with the type of mineralisation that’s now been uncovered. How big the new opportunity will be remains to be seen, but the prospectivity of El Potrero has once again been confirmed, and the potential for economic return significantly enhanced.