Intersects 17m True-Width Of 428 Grams Per Ton Silver
Sierra Metals Inc. (TSX: SMT) (NYSE: SMTS) has announces the discovery of a new high-grade silver zone with significant widths in an area called Northeast – Southwest System of Epithermal Veins and is providing a corporate update for its Cusi Mine in Mexico.
The new high-grade silver vein system was discovered as a consequence of a combination of mine development work in recent months and confirmatory drilling which includes true widths of 17.45m of 428 g/t silver (464 g/t silver equivalent), 9.35m of 304 g/t silver (327 g/t silver equivalent), 8.75m of 303 g/t silver (322 g/t silver equivalent) and 4.90m of 1,140 g/t silver (1,163 g/t silver equivalent).
J. Alonso Lujan, Vice President Exploration of Sierra Metals, said the company announced in June 2018 the discovery of a 40m wide high-grade stockwork area within the Santa Rosa de Lima vein at Cusi. As the area was developed for mining in the later part of 2019 and early 2020, our geologists re-interpreted the stockwork structure as a series of high-grade veins that had an orientation perpendicular to the Santa Rosa de Lima Structure.
“The most important implication of this re-interpretation is that rather than a widening of the Santa Rosa de Lima zone, these veins extended further to the North East side of the Cusi fault, which was considered barren of silver mineralisation before. Note that the Cusi fault coincides with The Santa Rosa de Lima structure,” Mr Lujan said.
“All the historic silver mineralisation at the Cusi mine reported by Sierra Metals was in the South Western side of this regional fault. The new discovery is an extension of the Cusi Vein systems in the North East of the fault and, rather than barren, the veins are reporting silver grades and widths above the average of the structures previously known at the mine in the South West to the Cusi fault.”
The company has plans to drill an additional 1,000 meters to better understand the extension of the zone at depth and to Northeast. This mineralised zone is made up of multiple veins extending over 300 meters in length which are in proximity to the existing operations.
“This exploration program confirms the existence of high-grade silver mineralization and demonstrates the important potential of this new zone. It will also allow the Company to use a mining method which results in high productivity thus achieving the planned objectives for the Cusi Mine.” Mr Lujan said.
“Intercepts such as those shown especially in holes DC20M658, DC20M677, DC20M686 and DC20M687 are common in high-grade epithermal deposits, and demonstrate further potential.
“As such, they give us a reason to continue exploration in the Cusi fault area at depth and along strike, as well as at other high-value zones such as the San Rafael, San Nicolas and the Bordo fault. We look forward to an exciting future as we explore the Cusi district.”
The Cusi Mine is located within the municipality of Cusihuiriachi in the central portion of the State of Chihuahua, in Mexico. The Mine area encompasses 11,657 hectares at an elevation range of 1,950 to 2,460m above sea level in the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountain Range.
