Silver Mines drills deeper to shine light on Bowdens potential

Silver Mines has started drilling to both advance and potentially grow the already globally significant resource at the Bowdens silver project.

Pic via Getty Images

• Silver Mines has begun a diamond drilling program at Bowdens to collect samples for potential offtake partners and test below the limits of the reserve pit mine design

Special report: Silver Mines has started a drilling program to both advance its 100% owned Bowdens project and potentially grow the current JORC reserve of 71.7Moz contained silver.

• An area below the optimised open pit design is interpreted to host high-grade mineralisation and significant potential to extend the ore reserve estimate

• With a current JORC reserve of 71.7Moz contained silver, Bowdens is the largest, most advanced undeveloped silver deposit in Australia

The geometallurgical (geo-met) diamond drilling program for 2000 metres will collect samples covering the first 10 years of production, as set out in Silver Mines’ (ASX:SVL) Optimisation Study released last December.

These samples from Bowdens’ Main Zone will be used to produce concentrate samples for potential offtake partners, transportation certification and tailings processing optimisation.

Core from the program will also be thoroughly analysed in a comprehensive test work program that will provide a world class dataset to inform final design and mine planning decisions.

Resource growth in sights

Beneath the primary target area for the geo-met drilling there is significant potential to extend Bowdens’ Ore Reserve Estimate. That’s led to the program being planned to also test below the limits of the reserve pit mine design.

It’s interpreted that there’s a section about 500m long, 50-100m deep and 200-250m wide below the optimised pit design containing high-grade mineralisation.

Previous intercepts have included three metres at 286 grams per tonne (g/t) silver, 0.44% zinc and 0.25% lead; and 3.2 metres at 143g/t silver, 0.99g/t gold, 10.39% zinc and 3.50% lead.

“With the release of the Mineral Resource and Ore Reserve Estimates in December 2024, and in conjunction with the Optimisation Study, we’re now advancing final mine designs and product specifications,” Silver Mines managing director Jo Battershill said.

“This program will provide invaluable information for potential off-take partners and the final tailings analysis.”

As well as the geo-met program, Battershill is also looking forward to testing the significant potential to extend the Ore Reserve Estimate below the limits of the reserve pit mine design.

“It is always exciting to return to drilling at the Bowdens Silver Project, and we are keen to take advantage of this geo-met program to further test areas of the Mineral Resource that we believe could be converted to Ore Reserves with minimal additional drilling,” he said.

“The target area already contains high-grade hits and could potentially extend the open pit design by an additional depth of 50 metres over a strike length of around 500 metres.

“Simple geometric calculations demonstrate this could extend the mine life well beyond the current 16-and-a-half years.”

Battershill added that the increased data from infill drilling at areas of historically lower drill-hole density at Bowdens had a strong track record of improving continuity and demonstrating the potential for improving resource grades.

“The Bowdens Silver Project remains one of the most advanced silver development projects on the ASX. When combined with the project’s tier one jurisdiction, we believe Silver Mines represents a compelling opportunity within the global silver sector.”

Global scale

Bowdens is already the largest and most advanced undeveloped silver deposit in Australia and on the ASX.

It’s also one of the largest undeveloped deposit globally and one of the most advanced, as well as being one of the most leveraged projects to the silver commodity price.

Another focus for Silver Mines in 2025 is Bowdens’ development consent and advancing the project through to front-end engineering design (FEED).

Silver Mines had its development consent granted by the Independent Planning Commission of New South Wales (IPC) in April 2023.

But this was revoked last August by the NSW Court of Appeal on a minor point of administrative law relating to the transmission line to get power from the grid to site, only about 13 kilometres away.

Battershill said the Court of Appeal decision also placed a significant number of other state infrastructure development projects at risk.

Since then, legislative changes in NSW had given the company a well-defined pathway to regaining the State Development Consent.

This article was developed in collaboration with Silver Mines, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

Originally published as Silver Mines drills deeper to shine light on Bowdens potential