Please start by giving us a brief overview of your operations at the Iska Iska Silver-Tin Polymetallic Project in Bolivia.
In a just over a year’s time, Eloro Resources Ltd. (TSXV: ELO) has successfully taken a never-been-drilled property in the highly prospective Potosi region of Bolivia and discovered an extensive porphyry-epithermal deposit complex with multiple breccias. The deposit is polymetallic and, by its nature, provides exposure to multiple metals including silver, tin, gold, zinc, lead, bismuth, and indium.
After the completion of two successful equity raises earlier this year, the company is fully financed for a significant 51,000-metre drill programme to further define the vast underlying potential of this property. An initial NI43-101 resource is in the works for the first quarter of 2022.
You recently made a very impressive intersection at Iska Iska (160.22g Ag eq/t). Please explain the significance of this result for the further development of the project.
This result all but solidified our belief that our current drilling should be on the Santa Barbara Breccia Pipe and now the surrounding mineralized envelope. As the Iska Iska property has never been drilled prior to this year, each drill result provides us with increasing confidence that the true size of the deposit is much larger than what we first estimated.
What are the advantages of mining in Bolivia rather than other jurisdictions? Is it simply to do with the quality of the Iska Iska deposit or are there other advantages?
Simply put, Bolivia is a country that is vastly under-explored, and the mineralized potential is substantial.
Additionally, Iska Iska further benefits from its location in a friendly mining region close to infrastructure, with uncomplicated topography and a welcoming and supportive community.
You also have the La Victoria silver-gold project in North Central Peru. Please give us a brief overview of these operations.
This project has significant exploration potential, though likely not to the same extent as Iska Iska and is situated in the right “geologic” neighbourhood of the Ancash department in Peru. Several mines, such as Pan-American Silver’s La Arena, and Shahuindo and Barrick’s former Lagunas Norte, are in this region.
The project has had its challenges in terms of permitting over the past couple of years, but with our agreement on surface rights now in place, we are eager to move forward with an inaugural 3,000-metre drilling campaign in early November.
On a wider theme, one of the most important discussions affecting capital markets is around decarbonization. How significant are tin and silver for renewable energy technology or EV batteries, for example?
Silver is a critical element because it has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of all the metals. For the generation of solar cell energy, efficiency is key, so silver is a must. Tin, on the other hand, is the “glue” that binds all the electronics necessary for this new energy technology to succeed. Whether this is in the semiconductors used in EV or the anodes in any of various forms of battery storage.
What are the next steps for Eloro at Iska Iska?
The key focus of management, in the near term, will be the completion of a NI43-101 maiden resource by the end of the first quarter. Although this resource will be limited in scope to just the Santa Barbara area of the much larger region, it will help define metallurgy and highlight the potential of the entire complex. A preliminary engineering study will follow and is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2022.
