Pinnacle Silver and Gold (PINN ) has received a permit from the Secretaría del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT), Mexico’s federal ministry responsible for environmental protection, natural resource management, and sustainable development, for a surface drilling program at the El Potrero gold-silver project in Mexico.
The permit covers 110 drill sites and is valid for two years.
At present Pinnacle is planning a first-pass drill program that is likely to include 48 holes, for 5,540 metres.
Targets will include gaps around the historic mine workings that weren’t reached by the current underground drilling program, the additional 1,100 metre strike extent of the Dos de Mayo vein system, and the parallel El Capulín vein system and the Estrella vein.
Significantly, the new permit is a full environmental permit, not just a standard drill permit.
In going through the protracted process of obtaining this permit, Pinnacle was required to provide substantively more background and baseline data than would normally be required for a drill permit, resulting in a longer approval time.
Having now done that however, the same data is being used to form the basis for the permits required for the mine, processing plant, tailings storage facility (TSF), powerline extension, water license, and auxiliary infrastructure, all of which are underway.
“Obtaining this drill permit is a major step forward for the Potrero project,” said Robert Archer, Pinnacle’s chief executive.
“Not only are we now able to transition from underground to surface drilling, but we have laid the groundwork for much of the permitting that is required to bring the project back into production. So, although this process took longer than a normal drill permit, it was not a waste of time as we would have been required to do the work anyway. We anticipate completing the underground program around the end of November, and demobilizing the underground crew and equipment, prior to commencing the surface program. Once the first surface drill is properly established on the Dos de Mayo vein targets, we will consider adding a second drill to start on the Estrella vein, as we believe that structure has a lot of potential. When all the results have been received for the underground drilling, we will be able to tabulate a mineral inventory for the existing mines, then add to that with the results from the surface drilling program, with the aim of providing a sufficient foundation for a mine plan and formal production decision in early 2027.”
View from Vox
Lots of progress from Pinnacle, as in the meantime the company has completed its underground programme at the historic Pinos Cuates mine, for a total of 1,452 metres in 73 holes. Results are expected in 3-to-4 weeks. Previous results have been highly encouraging, and the overall mineralized zone appears to be larger than previously thought. The underground drill has now moved into the historic Dos de Mayo mine, just along strike to the southeast, where 555 metres in 27 holes are planned. And on the surface, the programme is set to comprise 5,540 metres in 48 holes across four target areas. So lots of newsflow to look out for.