Precious metals mining company Endeavour Silver has filed a technical report for the recently acquired Pitarrilla project, in Mexico, which provides an independent estimate of the project’s mineral resources.
CEO Dan Dickson reports that Pitarrilla has a verified resource of nearly 600-million ounces of silver, which he says validates the merits of acquiring the deposit.
“Through historic drilling, the Pitarrilla project has benefitted from over 225 000 m of drilling and was advanced to a prefeasibility study of an underground operation and an openpit feasibility study in 2009 and 2012, respectively.
“The comprehensive work done to date, combined with the size and the scale of the deposit, provide flexibility and versatility for various mining scenarios. We will use the data collected to guide our exploration path going forward, with the potential to add significant value to the company,” he says.
The total indicated mineral resources (openpit and underground) at Pitarrilla totals 158.6-million tonnes containing 491.6-million ounces of silver, grading 96.4 g/t, 1.1-billion pounds of lead, grading 0.31%, 2.6-billion pounds of zinc, grading 0.74% for a total of 693.9-million ounces of silver equivalent, grading 136 g/t.
The inferred mineral resource totals 35.4-million tonnes containing 99.4-million ounces of silver, grading 87.2 g/t, 281-million pounds of lead, grading 0.36%, 661-million pounds of zinc, grading 0.85% for a total of 151.2-million ounces of silver equivalent, grading 132.7 g/t.
Endeavour concluded the acquisition of Pitarrilla from SSR Mining in July this year.