Pan American Silver drills best intercept to date at La Colorada Skarn

“Drill hole D-96-03-22 returned the highest-grade intercept from the more than 200,000 metres drilled to date on the La Colorada Skarn project,” Christopher Emerson, Pan American’s VP business development and geology, said in a news release.

“Further infill drilling will provide tighter spacing to help define this high-grade zone, while step out drilling targets extension of the footprint to the west where the mineralization is still open,” he added.

Other drill holes being highlighted include D-96-04-22, which returned 31.25 metres at 216 g/t silver, 5.60% lead and 4.82% zinc, and 40.65 metres at 99 g/t silver, 3.64% lead and 4.50% zinc. Both D-96-03-22 and D-96-04-22, according to Pan American, support its interpretation of an east-west trending high-grade silver zone between the Amolillo and NC2 veins that extends for at least 100 metres.

Underground and surface drilling in the western portion of the deposit, from drill holes west of U-11-22 and S-93-21, respectively, have also shown consistently wide intercepts and high-grade mineralization. 

Elsewhere, infill drilling (D-95-10–22 through D-95-12–22) extending the mineralization to the south of the central block showed multiple skarn and breccia style mineralization with widths up to 90 metres.

D-71-07-22 drilled in the eastern block intercepted strong sulphide mineralization over 180 metres and further opens up exploration to the east and south. D-62-06-22 and D-62-07-22 also provided continuity of the mineralization 150 metres to the east.

The latest results will be incorporated into Pan American’s upcoming mineral resource update for the La Colorada Skarn project, which is anticipated in the third quarter of 2022. The deposit currently contains 141 million ounces of silver and a large volume of base metals based on an August 2020 inferred resource estimate of 100.4 million tonnes.