Sun Silver has intersected silver-gold mineralisation from surface at its Maverick Silver Project in Nevada, including a higher-grade 1.5-metre zone grading 75 g/t AgEq. The results also extend the project’s antimony story and could influence future mine sequencing studies, although the shallow mineralisation remains only lightly tested.
- 16.8m at 20g/t AgEq from surface in MV0001
- 1.5m at 75g/t AgEq within the shallow intercept
- 80m at 59g/t AgEq at depth, including 9.2m at 214g/t
- Antimony zones intersected from 1.5m below surface
- Shallow mineralisation may support future starter-pit studies
Surface Intercept Opens a New Development Question
Sun Silver Limited (ASX:SS1) has hit silver-gold mineralisation from surface for the first time in its diamond drilling at the Maverick Silver Project in Nevada. Hole MV0001 returned 16.8 metres at 20 g/t silver equivalent from 0 metres, including 3.5 metres at 46 g/t AgEq and a higher-grade 1.5 metres at 75 g/t AgEq.
The significance is less about one isolated assay result than where it sits relative to the existing resource. Sun Silver says the intercept is outside the current Mineral Resource Estimate and indicates that mineralisation can extend directly to surface. The company is now assessing whether additional shallow mineralisation could contribute to future development studies, including potential starter pits or staged mining areas.
Managing Director Andrew Dornan said surface silver and gold was the result the company wanted while evaluating development pathways, adding that continued results could point to reduced pre-strip and earlier processing feed. Those possible advantages remain conditional: the controls and spatial extent of the shallow mineralisation are not yet well understood, and much of the historic drilling above the main resource was not sampled.
Deep Intercepts Reinforce the Existing Resource
MV0001 also delivered a broad interval at depth, returning 80 metres at 59 g/t AgEq from 166.1 metres. That included 32 metres at 101 g/t AgEq, with a 9.2-metre section grading 214 g/t AgEq from 232 metres. A second hole, MV0002, returned 3.7 metres at 55 g/t AgEq from 194.6 metres and a further 32.3 metres at 52 g/t AgEq from 206.4 metres.
These results sit alongside Maverick’s existing JORC Inferred Mineral Resource of 237.3 million tonnes at 71 g/t AgEq, containing 539 million ounces of silver equivalent. The company says drilling continues to test open extensions and intersect predicted mineralised zones, but the new holes do not themselves establish an Ore Reserve or a mine plan.
Antimony Appears Across a Broad Vertical Range
Antimony adds another dimension to the drilling. MV0001 intersected 6.1 metres at 600 parts per million from 1.5 metres, 11.6 metres at 600 ppm from 25 metres and 20.6 metres at 600 ppm from 205.4 metres, including 6.8 metres at 0.1% antimony. MV0002 returned a 35.9-metre antimony interval at 600 ppm from 162.4 metres, including 9.8 metres at 1,000 ppm.
Sun Silver compares the reported antimony grades with the approximately 0.06% to 0.07% average grades reported for Perpetua Resources’ Stibnite Gold Project. That comparison is indicative rather than conclusive. The company has yet to establish the economic contribution of antimony at Maverick, while metallurgical sample results remain pending.
Drilling Must Define the Shallow Footprint
The company points to Nevada’s Rochester and Hycroft operations as evidence that large open-pit silver and gold-silver projects can operate at grades below the new Maverick surface intercepts. Project comparisons, however, depend on metallurgy, recoveries, strip ratios, mining costs, processing methods and scale. Sun Silver’s AgEq figures also rely on an assumed 85% recovery for silver and gold and a stated equivalency ratio of 85.
Further drilling is planned across shallow silver, gold and antimony targets, as well as extensions to the northwest and southeast along the project hinge. The immediate test is whether MV0001 marks a coherent near-surface zone large enough to alter pit geometry and mine sequencing, rather than simply providing an encouraging point at the top of a much larger deposit.
Bottom Line?
The surface result could improve Maverick’s development profile, but its value will depend on continuity, geometry, metallurgy and the eventual effect on strip ratios and mine sequencing.
Questions in the middle?
- How far does the shallow silver-gold mineralisation extend laterally and vertically beyond MV0001?
- Can future drilling define a starter-pit geometry with sufficient continuity and scale?
- Will metallurgical testing confirm that antimony can become an economically meaningful by-product?