Vizsla Silver (VZLA) - 120,000m Drilling Finding Higher Grade Silver

Vizsla Silver Corp. is a Canadian exploration company focused on exploring and acquiring precious and base metal assets. The company boasts as being Mexico’s most aggressive exploration company, with 13 exploration drill rigs active on its district-scale Panuco silver-gold project located in Sinaloa, Mexico.

Matthew Gordon spoke with Michael Konnert, the President and CEO of Vizsla Silver Corp. (TSX-V:VZLA) to discuss the company’s recent activities. 

Company Overview

The company recently undertook a three-week roadshow in Europe. The roadshow is aimed at creating awareness of the project to the market. Vizsla Silver Corp. recently also published the project’s maiden resource estimate (MRE) which contains over 106 million ounces of silver equivalent (AgEq) in inferred and indicated resources. The maiden resource was published only 18 months after the project’s discovery.

The company has over USD$ 38 million in its treasury and is fully funded for its planned exploration drilling program in 2022. The exploration drilling program is planned to be comprised of 120,000 m of drilling, with the exploration drilling program currently underway at the Panuco silver-gold project. The exploration drilling program is aimed at further expanding the project’s maiden resource on the western portion of the property as well as testing the high priority targets on the property’s central and eastern portions.

Vizsla Silver Corp. has recently announced results from the exploration drilling program, which includes highlights of 1,559 g/t of silver and 7.29 g/t of gold over 7.81 m as well as subvertical mineralisation at the project’s Copala vein of 2,728 g/t silver and 13.10 g/t gold.

The company plans on continuing its exploration activities in the coming year which it believes will enable it to become a future household name in the United States silver industry. Vizsla Silver also believes that its exploration endeavours will enable further value creation for its shareholders.

Management

The company is led by Michael Konnert, the President and CEO. Konnert has more than a decade of experience in the natural resource industry. He is highly skilled in executing successful corporate strategies for mineral exploration companies and is also the co-founder and a Partner at Inventa Capital Corp., a private natural resource investment company based in Vancouver. Konnert previously served as the CEO and co-founder of Cobalt One Energy Corp. which was acquired by Blackstone Minerals Ltd. in 2017.

Mahesh Liyanage is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the company and has more than 20 years of experience across various industries. Liyanage is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) and is highly skilled in Canadian public company reporting and regulatory compliance, mergers and acquisitions, treasury management and tax compliance.

Martin Dupuis serves as the Vice President of Technical Services. Dupuis has more than 25 years of experience with regard to the geology and exploration of precious metals mining operations with 10 years thereof spent in Latin America. He has previously been the director of geology at Pan American Silver, technical services manager at Aurico gold, and chief geologist at various other operations

Pete Longo serves as the Vice President of Projects and has more than 20 years of experience in base metals, uranium and gold operations and projects. Longo is accredited with leading the turnaround of Claude Resources to consecutive years of record production, HSE compliance and cost performance. He also led the development of the Wheeler River project in his time as Vice President of Projects at Denison Mines Corp.

Veljko Brcic is the Vice President of Corporate Development and has more than a decade of experience in the origination, negotiation, and structuring of new investment opportunities in mining, energy, and environmental and social governance (ESG).

Michael Pettingell is the Vice President of Business Development and Strategy and has over 10 years of experience in pre-producing and operating mines, as well as capital markets. He has previously held roles as an equity researcher as well as various roles as an exploration geologist in the mining sector.

Charles Funk and Jennifer Hanson serve as Technical Director and Corporate Secretary respectively. Funk has over thirteen years of industry experience, most recently as the Vice President of New Opportunities and Exploration at Evrim Resources and has a wide range of experience in porphyry, epithermal and Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG) deposits. Hanson has over 22 years of experience in administration including human resource management and accounting.

Craig Parry serves as the chairman of the board, with Simon Cmrlec and Stuart Smith both serving as directors.

The management team of the company is well experienced to be able to advance the company’s Panuco silver-gold project forward.

Panuco project

The Panuco silver-gold project is a 9,386.5-hectare land package located in the Sierra Madre epithermal belt in Mexico. The project holds various infrastructure which includes access to roads, power and a skilled workforce.  The company commenced with the systematic exploration of the district in 2019 with the company completing 29,500 m of drilling at the end of 2020.

Vizsla Silver Corp. completed an additional 100,000 m of exploration in 2021, which led to the discovery of several new high-grade mineralisation veins.  

The company published a maiden resource estimate (MRE) of the project in March 2022, which was based on 124,915 m of drilling conducted at the project. The mineral resource boasts 61.1 million ounces of silver equivalent in the indicated category, with another 45.6 million ounces of silver equivalent in the inferred category. The MRE was completed within 18 months of the initiation of drilling at the project, a fact of which the company is very proud. Konnert states:

“It's in all categories Measured and Indicated and inferred over 106 million ounces of silver equivalent. That was done in 18-months of drilling from discovery to resource, so really an incredible outcome from our technical team at the project”

The company also recently announced the discovery of a new mineralisation vein, the Cruz Negra vein, within the project’s Napoleon corridor. The Cruz Negra Vein is located approximately 250 m west of the company’s Napoleon resource area. The highlights of the drill results include 1,169 g/t of silver equivalent (AgEq) over 3.2 metres downhole (mDH) as well as 3,098 g/t AgEq over 0.9 mDH. The results are from five of the nine holes drilled at the Cruz Negra vein and defines a 180 m long and 240 m deep mineralisation zone.

Recent activities and finances

Vizsla Silver Corp. recently undertook a 3-week roadshow in Europe which was aimed at creating awareness of the Panuco silver-gold project in the market, including sharing the fact that the 13 wireframes of the resource are open for expansion.

The company sits comfortably at a cash position of USD$ 38 million and is fully funded for its 2022 exploration program. The company also has warrants that are in the money and may be exercised. The exercising of the warrants will add an additional USD$ 30 million to the company’s treasury.

Vizsla Silver Corp. further has tradable warrants that are listed and hold the potential to add another USD$ 60 million to the company’s treasury. The tradable warrants expire in December, and with the addition of the warrants the company holds the potential to end the year with over USD$ 100 million in the bank.

The company has recently been listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: VZLA) as well. The aim of the NYSE listing is to expose the company to a much larger silver market in the US as well as to remove any preconceptions standing in the way of investors, Konnert explains the listing as follows:

“it's been quite interesting to follow the volumes because sometimes that US volume exceeds the Canadian. So the goal is to bring more eyes on the company, basically remove all barriers for people to buy the shares and expose Vizsla to a much larger market, which is the US market.”

Future plans

Vizsla Silver Corp. plans on continuing with its aggressive exploration of the Panuco project in 2022, with it aiming to conduct 120,000 m of drilling which is fully funded.

The drilling program will consist of 13 drill rigs and will be aimed at further expanding the Project’s maiden resource base on the western portion of the property as well as testing for high priority targets on the central and eastern portions of the property.

Vizsla Silver Corp. is aiming to identify new centres of mineralisation which it may implement towards the delineation of additional resources as well as investigating accelerated development opportunities.

The company plans to continue its exploration activities in the future, with Konnert believing that another 120,000 m of exploration is justified to further quantify and understand the projects mineralisation in 2023, he states:

“I think we could be doing the shareholders a disservice if we don't continue with another, let's say 120,000m as planned this year, to keep growing the district because you don't want to wrap economics and a mine plan around something when each of the 13 wireframes is open for expansion”

Vizsla Silver Corp. also plans to issue an updated mineral resource in the second half of 2022, with another update preliminarily scheduled to be released six months thereafter. The company tentatively plans to release an economic study of the Panuco silver project by the end of 2022. The company plans to advance the project towards production simultaneously whilst conducting its aggressive exploration initiatives.

To find out more, go to the Vizsla Silver website