Equity Metals hits bonanza-grade silver at Silver Queen in BC

Canadian explorer Equity Metals (TSXV: EQTY; US-OTC: EQMEF) owns precious-base metal and diamond projects in British Columbia and the Northwest Territories.

The Vancouver-headquartered junior is focused on advancing its 100%-owned flagship Silver Queen gold-silver-base metal project in central B.C., about 590 km northwest of Vancouver and 35 km south of the town of Houston.

The 18,852-hectare property lies within the heart of the world-renowned Skeena Arch mining district, which hosts several current and past-producing mines and numerous advanced exploration projects. These include the Huckleberry copper mine, owned and operated by Huckleberry Mines Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Imperial Metals (TSX: III); the past-producing Equity Silver mine, owned by Newmont (TSX: NGT; NYSE: NEM); and Surge Copper’s (TSXV: SURG; US-OTC: SRGXF) Berg deposit, an advanced exploration-stage copper-molybdenum-silver project.

Robert Macdonald, Equity Metals’ vice president of exploration, says Silver Queen “has had over a century of exploration on the property and hosts a historical past-producing mine. It benefits from excellent infrastructure, including an all-weather road that connects it to Highway 16, providing access to Pacific ports, a rail line, power lines that run along the western side of the property, camp infrastructure, and a tailings management facility.”

The mineralisation at Silver Queen occurs in an extensive epithermal vein system covering a six-sq.-km area. While more than 20 veins have been discovered on the property to date, with silver-gold-enriched mineralisation identified in the western portion of the property and base metal in the eastern part, Macdonald said the property remains largely underexplored.

“Closer inspection of the historical data, as well as some of our initial drilling, confirmed a fairly strong east-west orientation to some of the mineralisation,” he said. “This led to the identification of distinct areas of mineralisation along an east-southeast and west-northwest corridor, with our recent drilling focused on confirming this.”

Since the fall of 2020, Equity Metals has drilled 59 holes (18,716 metres) over five successive phases of exploration drilling, which focused on four vein systems — Camp, No.3, about one km to the east of Camp, No.5/Switchback, between Camp and No.3, and NG-3, about one km southeast of Camp.

Drilling on the Camp vein returned bonanza-grade silver mineralization. Highlights included drillholes SQ20-010, which intersected 4.4 metres grading 4,632 grams silver per tonne, 0.2 gram gold per tonne, 0.12% copper, 0.14% lead, and 1.2% zinc (4,718 grams silver-equivalent per tonne or 62.9 grams gold-equivalent per tonne) from 112.4 metres downhole, including a higher grade core of 0.3 metres of 56,115 grams silver, 0.1 gram gold, 1.08% copper, 0.6% lead, and 1.2% zinc (56,291 grams silver-equivalent or 750.5 grams gold-equivalent).

Hole SQ21-031 cut 2.8 metres of 2,402 grams silver, 0.1 gram gold, 0.1% copper, 1.3% lead, and 2.2% zinc (2,543 grams silver-equivalent or 33.9 grams gold-equivalent) from 232.3 metres, including 0.3 metres of 14,035 grams silver, 0.5 gram gold, 0.5% copper, 1.3% lead, and 3.3% zinc (14,256 grams silver-equivalent or 190.1 grams gold-equivalent).

The drilling “not only confirmed the exceptionally high-grade potential of the Camp vein but also identified the deepest step-outs drilled to date and demonstrated that the high-grade mineralisation extends to about 175 metres below surface, with the mineralisation remaining open at depth and to the east and west,” Macdonald said.

“We believe there is huge upside potential for significant additional resources at Camp, which could potentially more than double the existing resource base,” he said. “The current estimate only comprises mineralisation hosted by No. 3 vein and doesn’t include any drill results from the Camp or the recently drilled No.5/Switchback.”

A 2019 mineral resource estimate for Silver Queen estimated 815,000 indicated tonnes grading 3.2 grams gold per tonne, 201 grams silver per tonne, 0.3% copper, 0.9% lead, and 6.4% zinc for 85,000 oz. contained gold, 5.2 million oz. silver, 5 million lb. copper, 17 million lb. lead, and 114 million lb. zinc (244,000 oz. gold-equivalent or 22 million oz. silver-equivalent). Inferred resources add 801,000 tonnes of 2.5 grams gold, 184 grams silver, 0.3% copper, 0.9% lead, and 5.2% zinc for 64,000 oz. gold, 4.7 million oz. silver, 5 million lb. copper, 16 million lb. lead, and 92 million lb. zinc (193,000 oz. gold-equivalent or 17 million oz. silver-equivalent).

To date, Equity Metals has completed approximately two thirds of its 2021/22 drill program. The program consists of 15,000 metres of drilling to extend the current 2.5 km strike length of Camp and to test a 1,000-metre-long, east-southeast trending target that forms the eastern projection of Camp and transitions into the No. 3, Switchback, and No. 5 vein systems.

Since September, it has completed 36 new drill holes and an extension of an earlier hole totalling 9,660 metres, with assays from 26 of these holes expected over the coming weeks and into 2022.

“Visual inspection of the core samples from between the No. 5 and Switchback segment has been very encouraging, and we continue to target this area with our current drilling campaign,”  Macdonald said.

The company plans to release an updated resource estimate in the second quarter of next year that will include the drill results from Camp.

Equity Metals also holds interests in two highly prospective diamond properties, Monument and WO. Both properties lie within the Lac de Gras area of the Northwest Territories, one of Canada’s most prolific diamond-producing regions.

This article was first published by The Northern Miner. Read the original story here.