The latest drill results from Arizona Mining‘s Hermosa zinc-lead-silver project, 81 km southeast of Tucson, Ariz., could change how the company develops the project, says chief operating officer Donald Taylor.
Drilling was aimed at the Taylor Deeps zone, a northeast-dipping bed of metal-drenched limestone that’s separated from the company’s flagship Taylor sulphide deposit by a low-angle thrust fault.
Two of the seven reported drill holes, 446 and 447, targeted the southeastern, up-dip extension of Taylor Deeps, 183 and 305 metres from its resource boundary.
The holes’ locations were selected to infill the area between the resource and a 457-metre step-out hole drilled in April, hole 435, which returned 18.6 metres of 16.5% zinc, 13.8% lead and 307.5 grams silver per tonne.
Both new holes hit similar grades and thicknesses, with results of 20.4 metres of 20.5% zinc, 18.1% lead, and 234.4 grams silver in hole 446, and 45.4 metres of 4.7% zinc, 6.2% lead and 134.4 grams silver, including a 13.1-metre zone of 11.4% zinc, 18.6% lead and 384.4 grams silver in hole 447.
“The up-dip part of Taylor deeps is thick, high-grade and closer to surface — about the same elevation as the Taylor sulphide deposit,” Taylor tells The Northern Miner during a phone interview. “These results could affect our future mine plan. If we can bring the southeast end of Taylor Deeps up front in the mine plan, the high grades will boost the economics considerably. It has wonderful grades to start a mine on.”
Source: Northern Miner