Kingsmen Resources reported 1.40 metres grading 433 g/t silver equivalent, including 239 g/t silver, from 190.0 metres in hole LC-26-014 at its Las Coloradas project in the Parral district of Chihuahua, Mexico. Within that interval, a 0.75-metre sample returned 787 g/t silver equivalent (435 g/t silver).
The second hole released, LC-26-015, cut 1.70 metres at 185 g/t silver equivalent (139 g/t silver) from 201.65 metres, including a shorter interval at 438 g/t silver equivalent.
Both holes were drilled as step-outs beneath old mine workings, targeting a 100-metre undercut. According to the company, they intersected the mineralized system 90 metres and 96 metres down-dip of previously mined ground. The Mine zone has now been traced over a minimum strike length of 106 metres across three drill fences spaced 50 metres apart, to a vertical depth of 155 metres. Kingsmen says the zone remains open at depth and along strike.
What the grades represent
The reported widths are drilled core lengths, not true widths, which the company states have not yet been determined. Core length overstates the actual thickness of a zone when a hole cuts it at an angle. The mineralization is described as dipping east at roughly 40 degrees.
Silver equivalent is a single number that rolls gold, lead and zinc into a silver-grade figure. In LC-26-014's headline interval, silver itself accounts for 239 of the 433 g/t; the rest comes from 0.41 g/t gold, 4.53 percent lead and 5.65 percent zinc. The calculation assumes prices of US$42 per ounce silver, US$3,675 per ounce gold, US$2,003 per tonne lead and US$2,960 per tonne zinc.
The recovery assumptions behind the formula — 92 percent for silver, 91 percent lead, 85 percent zinc and 40 percent gold — are taken from published figures for a different deposit, Kootenay Silver's La Cigarra project in Chihuahua, which Kingsmen describes as having a similar mineralization style. No metallurgical testwork on Las Coloradas material is cited.
There is also an internal inconsistency in the release. The highlight text gives LC-26-014's high-grade sub-interval as 0.75 metres from 190.4 to 191.5 metres, which extends beyond the stated 191.4-metre end of the parent interval. For LC-26-015, the highlights describe a 0.68-metre sub-interval from 202.17 to 202.85 metres while the accompanying table lists 0.78 metres from 201.17 metres.
Where the programme stands
Kingsmen has now published results from three of the 19 holes drilled to date at Las Coloradas. Earlier releases covered LC-26-013, which returned 5.20 metres at 257 g/t silver equivalent, and LC-25-010, which returned 13.4 metres at 138 g/t silver equivalent including 0.7 metres at 1,742 g/t. The company says the wide intercept in LC-25-010 sits in a structurally controlled dilatant zone — a gap opened by faulting that allowed thicker mineral deposition — and that this zone has not been drilled along strike in either of the fences reported here.
By the company's own account, there has been no infill drilling, no deep drilling and no testing of the wide zone seen in LC-25-010. The property covers 8.5 square kilometres and consolidates ground worked by ASARCO between 1942 and 1952.
President and chief executive Scott Emerson said the drilling has "outlined a block of mineralization that remains open along strike and at depth," and pointed to untested ground between the intercepts shown in the release's sections. Kingsmen attaches a footnote to that interpretation, noting it rests on the company's current geological model and that there is no assurance further drilling will confirm or extend what has been found, or that such drilling will take place.
Samples went to ALS Geochemistry in Chihuahua for four-acid multielement analysis and fire assay for gold, with standards, blanks and duplicates inserted into the sample stream. Remaining core is being logged and sampled, with further assays to be released as they are received.
Las Coloradas has no mineral resource estimate, and the release gives no figures on cash on hand, the cost of the drill programme or how much drilling remains funded. Kingsmen trades on the TSX Venture Exchange, the OTCQB market and in Frankfurt.
Source: Newsfile
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