Silvercorp Metals Inc. (“Silvercorp” or the “Company”) (TSX: SVM) (NYSE American: SVM) is pleased to report its plans to develop the Condor gold project (the “Project”), located in southern Ecuador. A preliminary economic assessment (PEA) was completed on the Project by a previous operator, which outlined a high tonnage, low-grade, open pit gold project.
The Project comprises a cluster of gold deposits in the Condor North area, with Camp and Los Cuyes contributing the majority of the known mineral resources. Each deposit is unique and different from the others on a deposit scale. Previous drilling reported numerous long core intersections of gold mineralization, usually consisting of higher-grade intervals and surrounding lower-grade halos.
After reviewing the technical Project data, including re-logging of the historical core, the Company believes that high-grade gold mineralization mostly occurs in subvertical vein/rhyolitic dyke structures containing pyrite and sphalerite. Minor amounts of galena and chalcopyrite are also present and may form low grade halos, which can be quite extensive along certain volcanic layers.
Select drilling intercepts, show higher-grade drill intervals with true widths over 3.5 metres (“m”). This highlights the potential for selective underground mining at Condor. Noteworthy intercepts include:
- Camp: CC19-01, 9.03 grams per tonne (“g/t”) over 8.05 m true width from 260 m
- Enma: DEN-31, 44.16 g/t Au over 4.5 m true width from 90 m
- Los Cuyes: DCU-17B, 8.98 g/t Au over 16.7 m true width from 202 m
- San Jose: DD-004, 9.00 g/t Au over 21.1 m true width from surface
Development Plan for a Possible Underground Operation
In order to advance the Condor gold project as an underground operation, the Company will focus on high-grade gold structures/rhyolitic dykes.
Deposit Descriptions
The Condor deposits are hosted in a Cretaceous volcanic complex of diatremes and rhyolite/dacite intrusives crosscutting the Zamora batholith granodiorite of Jurassic age. The Project consists of the following five known deposits:
- Los Cuyes: Gold is hosted in a volcanic diatreme which crosscuts a granodiorite batholith. The diatreme, with a dimension of 450m in NE-SW x 300m in NW-SE x 350m depth comprises phreatomagmatic breccias, tuff and sediments, all of which are cross-cut by NW and NE striking dykes of rhyolite and dacite.
Gold mineralization mostly occurs in subvertical vein structures containing pyrite and sphalerite with minor amounts of galena and chalcopyrite. The vein-like mineralisation primarily occurs along the contact zones of intrusive dykes with the surrounding volcanics and Granodiorite batholith. In addition, gold is also associated with sulfide dissemination occurring in rhyolitic tuff units, resulting in wide sub-horizontal zones of gold mineralization. - Camp: Gold mineralization occurs within veins of pyrite/sphalerite and is controlled by NW striking rhyolite dykes at shallow levels, as well as crypto intrusive domes of rhyolite at depth. Gold mineralization remains open beyond a depth of 700 metres based on existing drill data.
- Soledad: Gold mineralization is associated with pyrite/sphalerite replacement of feldspar grains (patchy) or veins hosted in a rhyodacite porphyry. At San Jose, gold mineralization consists of sphalerite-rich veins hosted in phreatomagmatic breccia.
- Guaya: Gold mineralization is associated with pyrite-sphalerite veins hosted in a rhyo-dacite porphyry.
- Enma: Gold mineralization occurs within veins of pyrite/sphalerite hosted in the rhyolitic breccia along the contact between dacitic tuff and granodiorite batholith.
