Silver Mines transforms exploration portfolio with US assets

Silver Mines is adding high-prospectivity, low-risk US precious metals exploration assets to its Australian portfolio.

Silver Mines is spreading its eagle-eyed exploration expertise into California. Pic via Getty Images

• Silver Mines expands its exploration portfolio by acquiring precious metals projects in the US, while continuing to focus on advancing the Bowdens Silver Project in NSW

• The Californian projects feature known mineralisation, with historical production and significant untested mineralised structures

• Exploration activities will start in the latter half of 2025 at the new assets, which require minimal upfront cash payment

 

Special Report: Silver Mines is making significant additions to its highly prospective, low-risk exploration portfolio with the acquisition of precious metals assets in the US.

While Silver Mines (ASX:SVL) remains firmly focused on advancing the Bowdens Silver Project in NSW, the company has signed binding agreements to purchase the Calico North silver project, and the Kramer Hills gold and silver project in California.

Both projects in the prolific San Bernardino County host mineralisation and adjacent or historical production, with kilometres of mineralised structures still untested both near surface and at depth.

The total upfront cash payment for the acquisitions is a minimal US$1.1 million (A$1.7 million) plus 6.2 million Silver Mines shares. That will be followed by milestone payments or expenditure commitments as the projects are progressed.

Initial exploration activity is expected to start in the second half of calendar 2025. The focus will be on geophysics and mapping to define and prioritise drilling targets, before drill planning next year.

Silver Mines managing director Jo Battershill said the transactions added low-risk exploration options to the company’s portfolio, while complementing its Bowdens project. He confirmed that development consent and mining lease approvals for Bowdens remained the company’s key focus in 2025.

“Silver Mines remains absolutely committed to advancing the flagship Bowdens Silver Project through permitting and into production,” Battershill said.

“Whilst exploration potential remains at Bowdens, especially at depth, we have already matured a substantial Reserve at the Project with a long forecast mine life.”

Augmenting the Ag

Bowdens has a current JORC-compliant reserve of 71.7 million ounces of silver, making it the largest undeveloped silver project in Australia and one of the largest in the world. It still has ample resource growth potential at a time of bullish long-term sentiment for silver and strong investor appetite for pure play leverage to the silver price.

Battershill added: “The Company has been mindful of augmenting Silver Mines’ exploration optionality and these transactions are the result of an extensive global silver project survey we have conducted over the last 12-months.

“These projects provide Silver Mines with a substantial foothold in a highly endowed region and fit perfectly with our preference for brownfields targets with high potential, in safe jurisdictions and with minimal balance sheet impact.

“They offer substantial upside to shareholders through the discovery and definition of a potential development pipeline and offer important geographical diversification.

“Also important for shareholders is that we have carefully structured the transaction to minimise upfront cash outlay and we are weighted towards a script component.”

Calico North silver and barite

Forming a significant portion of the prolific Calico Silver District, the Calico North Project is one of the largest silver camps in the US.

The project contains 38 historic mines and approximately 40km of prospective strike, which represents the north-west extension of an area that historically produced approximately 20Moz of silver.

Reported historical silver assays from veins in the target area returned up to an eye-popping 38,000 grams per tonne (g/t). Intercepts of 100 to 170 g/t are considered closer to the “normal” high grades encountered at the site.

The project has been virtually unexplored over the past century and modern exploration methods that can now be applied by Silver Mines offer potential to rapidly add value.

The high-grade mineralisation is interpreted to lie within a low-sulphidation epithermal deposit.  These shallow deposits are often major sources of gold and silver.

Additionally, the mineralisation is interpreted to have a close association with barite and the mineral was mined from 1957 to 1961 within the Calico North project area, which is in the same county as one of the US’s major producing critical mineral mines, MP Materials’ Mountain Pass.

Barite has recently been classified as critical in the US given its importance in oil and gas drilling, with most supply produced in India and China.

Kramer Hills gold

The Kramer Hills project includes patented claims at the historic Shaherald Mine and 569 BLM claims in the adjoining area.

This target zone lies along a mapped fault zone approximately 7km long, which has historic mine shafts extending for more than 4km along the fault zone.

Silver Mines’ initial target zone is 2.5km in strike length, and includes many mapped shafts and adits (horizontal or near horizontal entrances to underground mines).

There’s also a historical open pit that was last worked in the early 1990s, with rock samples collected by Silver Mines this year confirming the presence of gold.

Historic shallow drill results include high grade gold intercepts such as 21.3m at 7.9 g/t, 18.3m at 4.2 g/t, 25.6m at 2.7 g/t, 27.4m at 2.5 g/t and 21.3m at 3.0 g/t. Notably, numerous holes are mineralised from surface, terminated in mineralisation or both, illustrating the shallow nature of the deposit.

Silver Mines has identified an initial oxide exploration target at Kramer Hills with an upper target of 8.5 million tonnes (Mt) at 1.6 g/t gold for 445,000 contained ounces, with its lower target at 5.1Mt at 1.0 g/t for 160,000 ounces.

Ticking boxes

Battershill added: “The Calico North Project ticks a lot of boxes for us.

“There are extensive zones of silver-barite mineralisation with recent rock chips samples returning high grades, close to historical mines that produced over 20Moz silver, with almost no exploration conducted over the past 100 years.

“Our team has estimated that the project area contains close to 40km strike of prospective mineralised vein zones.

“The Kramer Hills Project contains historical oxide gold occurrences that were drilled out along 2km of strike and limited to a depth of around 30 metres in the 1980s.

“A heap leach mine was fully permitted in the late 1980s and was designed to process oxide ore. A large number of historical shafts suggest the mineralised zone could extend to over 4km along strike, and a water bore close to the former Shaherald Mine workings indicates additional depth potential for oxides and a deeper sulphide zone.

“We are very excited about progressing these assets through a systematic and detailed program of geological assessments.”

California and San Bernadino County Location Map. Pic: Silver Mines

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 transforms exploration portfolio with US assets