en.Wedoany.com Reported - Black Bear Minerals (ASX: BKB) has intersected high-grade silver mineralization grading up to 1,333 g/t at the Shafter Silver Project in Texas, USA.
This drilling validates historical data and supports potential extensions beyond the current foreign Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE). Key intercepts include: hole SFD020 returned 11.9 meters at 148 g/t silver from 78.9 meters, including 0.5 meters at 1,333 g/t; hole SFD022 returned 3.8 meters at 171 g/t silver from 146.2 meters, including 1.1 meters at 328 g/t; and hole SFD023 returned 2.8 meters at 116 g/t silver from 106.9 meters to end of hole. Paired holes SFD020 and SFD022 show greater thickness and grade than their historical counterparts. SFD020 corresponds to historical hole SD183, which previously returned 5.8 meters at 109 g/t silver; SFD022 corresponds to AMAX1261, which returned 0.9 meters at 157 g/t silver.
Chief Executive Officer Dennis Lindgren stated that the latest drilling at the Shafter project has delivered a suite of strong high-grade silver results, including 11.9 meters at 148 g/t silver (with 0.5 meters at 1,333 g/t silver). These results are significant as they validate known high-grade zones and support potential extensions beyond the current foreign MRE, with paired holes showing greater thickness and grade than comparable historical drilling results.
The Shafter project is located in Presidio County, Texas, with a strike length of approximately 4 kilometers, within a 1,600-kilometer carbonate sequence extending from northern Mexico into southwestern Texas. The project lies within the extension of the Eastern Sierra Madre Belt in Mexico, which hosts the world's fifth-largest silver mine, Peñasquito. Mineralization is characterized as manto-style carbonate replacement deposits within the Mina Grande Formation. The historical Presidio Mine produced 35.2 million ounces of silver between 1883 and 1942, at an average grade of 521 g/t.
Recent drilling has also revealed polymetallic potential beyond the pure silver foreign MRE. Hole SFD024 returned 10.7 meters at 3.3% zinc from 122.3 meters, including 1.7 meters at 19.8% zinc, 1.0% lead, and 0.3 g/t gold. Black Bear Minerals plans to conduct verification assays as part of resource validation to determine whether historical analytical methods underestimated silver grades, with results expected within four to six weeks. The company will undertake limited infill drilling to validate the foreign MRE, aiming to complete a maiden JORC Mineral Resource Estimate and advance a Rapid Mine Restart Study.
Black Bear Minerals is a North America-focused exploration company advancing the Shafter Silver Project in Texas, the Independence Gold Project in Nevada, and a portfolio of lithium projects in Quebec, Canada.
