Black Bear’s Shafter re-assays strengthen silver case as JORC resource nears

Shafter re-assays lift the grade profile

Black Bear Minerals Limited (ASX:BKB) has finished the first stage of its Shafter resource-validation campaign with a result that gives the old Texas silver project a stronger starting point: re-analysis of historic drill material has generally returned higher silver grades than originally reported. One interval, in hole S-12-403, rose to 9.1 metres at 1,043 grams per tonne silver from the historic 801g/t, including 0.6 metres at 2,990g/t compared with 1,284g/t.

“Topographic map of the Shafter Project displaying re-assayed drillholes (brown and black callouts) 6 in relation to the Foreign Mineral Resource Estimate (yellow shading).”

The broader dataset is not a single spectacular hole. Black Bear says the stage-one work covered 25 drillholes, 498 comparable assay pairs from core and 148 comparable assays from historic pulp material. Other notable results included 8.5 metres at 525g/t silver in hole 201200604, 14.6 metres at 542g/t in 201200106 and 7.9 metres at 377g/t in S-12-406. The company’s earlier Shafter core re-analysis had already reported silver grades reaching 2,990g/t and polymetallic mineralisation.

Gold adds a second resource question

The more consequential discovery may be what the historic database did not previously contain. Multi-element testing produced gold-bearing intervals, including 6.1 metres at 0.5g/t gold and 227g/t silver in hole 201200609, with a 0.6-metre sub-interval grading 4.1g/t gold. Separately recovered records from six SU-series underground holes showed gold associated with high-grade silver, including 1.8 metres at 1,768g/t silver and 0.9g/t gold in SU075.

“Cross section through the SU-series underground drillholes, highlighting key silver-gold intercepts8.”

“Topographic map of the Shafter Project displaying significant intercepts of BKB's drillholes in relation to the Foreign Mineral Resource Estimate (yellow shading) 9.”

Caption and image © Black Bear Minerals Limited. From “Quarterly Activities/Appendix 5B Cash Flow Report”, 29 Oct 2026.

That matters because Shafter’s existing foreign mineral resource estimate accounts for silver only. Black Bear is assessing the economic significance of the gold data while continuing to digitise historic records. The company has also completed the stage-one program and plans to incorporate the results into a maiden JORC estimate targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026. The important qualification is that Shafter’s current 17.57-million-ounce foreign estimate remains prepared under Canada’s NI 43-101 framework and has not yet been converted into a JORC 2012 Mineral Resource.

Underground drilling moves towards execution

Operational-readiness work is now under way ahead of access to the existing mine decline and the start of underground drilling. The planned program will test the Presidio East and Ramp areas, seek continuity between historic workings and the current resource footprint, and examine extensions beyond it. Black Bear says roughly one kilometre of strike within the Presidio mine area remains outside the foreign estimate and has not been adequately quantified.

The work is being funded against a tighter cash position than the headline exploration ambitions might suggest. Black Bear reported A$7.819 million in cash at 30 September after receiving A$12.0 million from an equity issue during the quarter, while exploration payments totalled A$1.960 million and transaction costs on the equity issue were A$754,000. Its Appendix 5B calculation shows 3.07 quarters of funding based on reported relevant outgoings of A$2.541 million, a measure that could change if exploration spending accelerates.

Independence economics remain preliminary

“Rock chip sample locations (cyan circles) at the Modoc Project in relation to the major Rocky Fault and associated iron-silica alteration that is analogous to the Rebel Fault…”

At the Independence Gold Project in Nevada, Black Bear reiterated a scoping study for a conventional open-pit, heap-leach operation. The study estimates a post-tax NPV5 of about A$511 million, a 64% internal rate of return and a 1.4-year payback, based on initial capital of about A$119 million plus A$8 million of working capital and initial fills. Its production target comprises 31.9 million tonnes at 0.30g/t gold and 6.09g/t silver, with estimated recovered production of 250,000 ounces of gold and 1.77 million ounces of silver over 9.7 years. The figures rest on gold and silver prices of A$6,128/oz and A$93/oz respectively, and on a study using 27% Inferred Resources.

The company’s Independence scoping study also excluded the larger balance of the expanded epithermal resource and the high-grade skarn resource. That makes the study a useful development marker, but not an Ore Reserve or a firm development case: the filing explicitly says the preliminary assessment cannot assure that the production target will be achieved. In Nevada’s Modoc area, meanwhile, Black Bear collected 50 first-pass rock-chip samples and is awaiting results.

The next test is conversion, not discovery

“Iron worldview index raster data (heatmap) across the Shafter Project, highlighting undrilled iron oxide targets at the Project11.”

For Shafter, the immediate catalyst is the maiden JORC estimate, followed by underground access and drilling results. The company is also considering a second-stage pulp re-assay program to reduce potential bias from selectively re-sampling available core, while spectral targets outside the current resource await field assessment and drill testing. Whether the stronger assays translate into a larger, JORC-compliant and economically mineable resource is the question now standing between encouraging historical data and a restart proposition.