The mineral resource estimate is based upon drilling completed by Silver Viper between 2018 and 2021 and by previous operators between 2010 and 2013 and has an effective date of May 1, 2021.
Gold and silver grades within the mineralized domains were estimated in four successive passes for the Las Huatas and El Rubi domains and in a single pass for all other domains.
Reasonable prospect of potential economic extraction is determined by restricting the potentially open pit accessible resource inside a Whittle optimized pit shell based on $US 1,650/oz of gold and $US 22/oz of silver and recoveries of 94% for gold and 90% for silver, overall pit slopes of 50 degrees and a total operating cost of $US 20.
Blocks were classified as indicated mineral resource for the El Rubi deposit if estimated during pass one with at least two drill holes with an average distance of 50 m or during pass two and informed by at least three drill holes within an average distance of less than 100 m.
The La Virginia Project is an early-stage exploration property situated within a range of mountains in the Sierra Madre Occidental.
Gold and silver mineralization is often found along the contact zones of said dykes, hosted by andesite wall rock or by the dykes themselves in the form of thin quartz vein stockworks or breccias.
El Rubi deposit is situated on a mesa roughly 2.5 kilometres in diameter, immediately north of an east-west, fault-controlled canyon which separates and offsets it laterally from the main block hosting the other deposits.
The andesite package reaches up to 300 m in thickness, and contains weakly porphyritic andesites interbedded with volcaniclastic and agglomeratic andesitic phases, further overlain by uniform feldspar-phyric andesite.
Mineralization at El Rubi has been intercepted by drilling over a strike length of 500 m and to a vertical depth of 300 m and represents a highly structurally controlled network of steeply dipping quartz veining and vein breccias.
Gold and silver mineralization at La Virginia occurs within breccias, veins and stockworks, hosted primarily by andesitic volcanics, often in close spatial association to, or cross-cutting pre-mineral dacite dykes and controlled by fractures and faults that define the regional structural trend.
Drilling by the Company to date builds upon a sizeable database of recent historical work including 52,635 metres of drill core from 188 diamond drill holes, generated by the efforts of previous operators between 2010 and 2013.
Samples were crushed, split and pulverized as per Bureau Veritas method PRP70-250, then analyzed for gold by lead collection fire assay fusion on a 30 gram split with AAS finish, and for a multi-element suite including silver by multi-acid digestion with ICP-ES/MS finish.
The Company has conducted a review of the historical drilling data by physical checks of existing drill pads and drill core and verified the tenor of mineralized intervals by portable XRF on core and sample pulps.
Dale Brittliffe, P.Geo., Vice President of Exploration, is the ‘Qualified Person’ under National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information contained in this news release.
Silver Viper has 100% ownership of the La Virginia concessions acquired from the most recent operator, Pan American Silver Corp., and has an option to acquire a 100% interest in the Rubi-Esperanza group of claims internal to those concessions.
Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to exploration and development, the ability of the Company to obtain additional financing, the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations, fluctuations in the prices of commodities, operating hazards and risks, competition and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in the Company’s financial statements available on www.sedar.com.