Silver Tiger Metals (SLVR) - 8 Drills Turning Soon

Silver Tiger Metals Inc. is a Canadian company whose management has over 25 years of experience in discovering, financing, and building large hydrothermal silver projects in Mexico. The company has 100% ownership of the Historic El Tigre Mining District, which is spread across a land area of 28,414 hectares.

Matt Gordon caught up with Glenn Jessome, President and CEO, Silver Tiger Metals. He is the founding and the largest shareholder of the company. Glenn is a securities lawyer with over 25 years of experience in the resource sector capital markets. He is a member of the TSXV National Advisory Committee. He is also the Corporate Secretary and a founding shareholder at GoGold Resources Inc.

Company Overview

Silver Tiger Metals was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Nova Scotia, Canada. The company is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX-V: SLVR) and the OTC Markets (OTCQX: SLVTF). El Tigre Silver Corp. and Lunar Gold Holdings Inc. are the company's subsidiaries. The company's flagship asset is the Historic El Tigre Mining District in Sonora, Mexico. 

Cash Position

Silver Tiger Metals recently raised $35M in bought-deal financing. The company’s share prices have observed an upward trend in recent times. Though the markets have been tougher, the company was able to raise significantly more capital than the previous $23M raise. The previous raise included the top precious metal institutions including Franklin Templeton and the Merck Group. The company has $13M-$14M in current cash flow.

Material Grades

Silver Tiger Metals has delivered exceptional grades of 1m-3m of 1kg-10kg through a wide range of coarse veins. In fact, the company found up to 82kg/t silver equivalent grades. 

Notably, the historic mining at El Tigre Mine supplied 100M silver equivalent ounces over 2.5kgs between 1908-1930. The operation was stalled due to The Great Depression. The mill’s operating capacity back then was 100t-200t/day. The grade here was found to be consistent at 2.5kgs. 

The company has identified vertical silver veins coming up to the surface and going down into an epithermal system up to a depth of 1km. The company has similar veins that are tens of kilometres long along the strike length. 

The Shale Horizon

Last spring, the company drilled the wide zones and identified the shale horizon around the quartz veins. The company found the presence of precious metals 10m-40m at the quartz intersections with grades higher than a kilo. The company is currently looking to prove that the shale horizon is present across the entire project. 

Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay materials and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. Shale has the tendency to split into thin layers called laminae that are less than one centimetre thick. At the Chispas deposit in Mexico, the company is currently in the process of resuming mining and exploration. The next step is to conduct underground exploration. The company’s recent press releases highlight the numerous high-grade, narrow vein structures. 

The company estimates that the shale horizon covers the middle 25km of the 35km land package. It has drilled the shale horizon across a 3km area where the quartz main is present. Silver Tiger Metals has drilled across Seitz Kelly and the first drilled hole comprised 82kg silver equivalent grades. Meanwhile, the shale had 17m-18m of 2.6kg. In the north, the company’s land package has 2 test holes that were drilled by Anaconda Mining in the 80s. 

Silver Tiger Metals is looking forward to drilling the shale in the deposit’s core. The company drilled the Seitz Kelley deposit including the 82kg silver equivalent and found 18m of 2.7kg. Within the shale, the company found grades of 0.5m of 1.15kg. Drilling the region also led to the identification of a brand new vein. The shale on this vein features grades of 16m at 350g and 0.5m at 8g. 

At the Sooy vein, the company found that the shale horizon was continuous at 30m-40m. It anticipates that the horizon is spread across the whole project. The grades found here were 6.6m at 350g, and 0.5m at 3kg. At the Tiger vein, the company drilled up to 80m to level 4. Interestingly, there was no past drilling done through the shale at the vein. The company has plans to explore levels 4,7 and 7.5 levels at the El Tigre Mine. 

The company has drilled continuously across 3km of the Sooy vein with drill holes that are about 700m across. The first 15 holes have already demonstrated continuity in the shale. Similar observations were also found 3km north on Protectora, where the deposit appears to hold together really well. Silver Tiger Metals anticipates that the shale continues over 15km north and south. It has plans to delineate the area by way of tight drilling. 

At the Sooy vein, the historic drill operations continued till 1930. The previous company drilled up to 150m with a 350m drift. The historic drill operation at El Tigre Mine drifted by 1.5km. At the northern end of the property, drilling was done up to a depth of 450m. At the Seitz Kelley eastern vein, the previous operators went down to a depth of 150m. 

Historical Mining Data

Silver Tiger Metals sourced all the past mining records from the University of Wyoming. These reports include around 35,000 blast samples. The company digitised all the past mining records, including the ironing engineering documents, and stope maps. The process took 6 months. 

Each bottom level where mining was stopped featured more than a kilo of silver equivalent grades. The company is simply drilling down-dip and going across strike length at these historically mined areas. Underneath the northern end of the mine, the historic drilling was very shallow on the 3 veins. Here 35,000 underground blast samples were built with every 5 feet being drifted and raised. 

At the north end, the past drilling was done at a depth of 450m. This area featured an important stope that featured 65M-70M silver equivalent ounces at over 2kg. 

At the Sooy vein, the company has explored 1.5km north and south to identify wide zones of shale that extend up to 3km, featuring super high grades between 1m-3m width in the quartz vein. The company has currently employed 3 drill rigs at the Seitz Kelley deposit, while 2 drill rigs are turning at the Sooy vein. 

Developmental Work

Silver Tiger Metals is working with one of the top developers in Mexico that have operated in the country for the past 25 years. The company is known to carry out the development work for all the first world mines. The company is on-site now and is mobilised to work with Silver Tiger Metals for the underground operations. 

The developer will be responsible to make the old El Tigre Mine safe to operate as per first world norms. Scoop trams are planned for deployment here to haul the waste rock out of the mine. The waste rock features 3g-4g/t grades which will be used as stockpile ore. The company is looking to reach level 7 at the old El Tigre Mine to start drilling. Notably, the company has all the underground channel samples from the past mining operation spread across every 5 feet. The company’s model goes down to a depth of 500g, the vast majority of grades here are higher than 1kg. 

The company has ongoing drill operations here. Since the terrain is rough, it is looking to go underground and target the area underneath the 150m-200m stopes by way of 2 drill rigs. 

The controls for the underground area are incredible and the deposit is open at great depth. The company is looking to drill the area underneath both the El Tigre Mine and the Sooy vein. It has plans for conducting bulk sampling along the shale horizon once the underground area is accessible. Silver Tiger Metals started exploring the land package with 3 drill rigs employed to understand the structure. It has successfully attained the required financing to fund the operation. The company is looking to further accelerate the drill program by adding more drill rigs. The company is focused on resuming mining operations at El Tigre Mine. 

To find out more, go to the Silver Tiger Metals website