Silver Mines puts historic Kramer Hills gold grades back to the test

Silver Mines Limited (ASX:SVL) has started the first modern drilling campaign at its Kramer Hills gold project in California, putting historical gold grades and a long-dormant mine back under the drill bit. The initial program will comprise up to 22 diamond holes for approximately 2,700 metres around the former Shaherald open pit.

Drilling Targets Shaherald Oxide and Sulphide Zones

The campaign is designed to establish the geometry and grade of the mineralised structure, with holes targeting both shallow oxide material and potential sulphide mineralisation beneath the historic pit. Silver Mines says the results will help determine whether enough geological confidence can eventually be built to support a JORC 2012 Mineral Resource estimate.

The immediate target is supported by historical drilling from the 1980s, although those records come with important limitations. Reported intercepts include 21.3 metres at 7.9 g/t gold, 18.3 metres at 4.2 g/t, and 6.1 metres at 6.0 g/t. Several historical holes ended in mineralisation, while much of the earlier exploration appears to have stopped at depths of about 30 metres.

Historical Mine Supports a Larger Exploration Target

Kramer Hills was worked intermittently from the 1920s before wartime restrictions halted precious-metals mining in 1942. Beaver Resources later permitted five open pits and began heap-leach production in 1988, but operations stopped around 1990 after problems associated with swelling clays in the ore. Only the Shaherald pit was developed, and it was mined only partially.

Silver Mines’ unchanged exploration target covers five near-surface oxide deposits and ranges from 5.1 million to 8.5 million tonnes at 1.0 to 1.6 g/t gold, equivalent to approximately 160,000 to 445,000 ounces of contained gold. Those figures remain conceptual, based substantially on historical information, and are not a Mineral Resource or Ore Reserve. The company says historical drilling, sampling, recovery, assay and quality-control records are incomplete.

Modern Work Has Refined the Geological Model

Since beginning its earn-in agreement in July 2025, Silver Mines has completed mapping, verification sampling, auger work and a ground magnetic survey. Verification samples collected during 2025 returned up to 1.52 g/t gold, while the new work supports a model in which mineralisation is hosted along a broad, east-west-trending shear zone extending for at least 2.7 kilometres and possibly more than 7 kilometres.

The project spans approximately 48 square kilometres of mining claims, alongside the private land containing the Shaherald property. The company has also identified historical shafts and workings along the broader structure, but the significance of those features will depend on what the new drilling shows rather than on the historical record alone.

Assay Results Become the Next Test

The drilling marks a shift from reconstructing an old exploration story to generating contemporary data. Results from the first holes should indicate whether the historical shallow oxide grades persist, whether mineralisation continues at depth into sulphide zones, and whether the scale of the conceptual target can be supported by modern drilling.

The key uncertainty is not the existence of historical gold occurrences, but their continuity, metallurgy, depth and economic relevance. The company says a preliminary study by Snowden Optiro identified no metallurgical red flags that would prevent future economic recovery, but that conclusion does not replace the drilling, assay and resource work still required.