Fortuna Silver Mines Inc (TSE:FVI) jumped more than 3% on Tuesday after releasing impressive intercepts at the Trinidad North discovery at its San Jose silver-gold mine in Mexico.
In lunchtime dealings the Vancouver-based company was changing hands for $4.46, up 3.7% on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Around 115,000 shares in the $560 million counter were traded by 12:30EST. Fortuna shares are up nearly 46% since the start of the year.
Fortuna released the results of step-put out drilling in eight holes at Trinidad North, first discovered in February last year, targeting a 230 metre strike extension, generally outside of the boundaries of the current resource:
Highlights from drilling included 2,573 g/t Ag and 10.77 g/t Au (~3.2 kg/t AgEq) over 3.0m, and 929 g/t Ag and 4.87 g/t Au (~1.2 kg/t AgEq) over 4.5m, and 1,808 g/t Ag and 13.21 g/t Au (~2.6 kg/t AgEq) over 4.1m.
Another hole at Trinidad returned 2,573 g/t Ag and 10.77 g/t Au (~3,2 kg/t Ag Eq) over 3.0m at the outer northern edge of drilling and the mineralized system remains open along strike to the north and at depth.
According to Fortuna work is currently being carried out from two underground drill stations located at the 1,300 meter level with work underway to advance the underground access a further 300 meters to the north to allow for further testing of the strike extension of the mineralized system. The vertical extension of the mineralized zone currently exceeds 600 meters.
Earlier this month Fortuna reported first quarter consolidated production of 1.5 million ounces of silver (2.5 million ounces of silver-equivalent) from its San Jose silver-gold mine in Mexico and the Caylloma polymetallic mine in Peru.
The San Jose mine produces 997,000oz of silver plus 7,600 oz of gold, beating expectations on the back of higher grades.
The mine has also been expanded to full operating capacity of 2,000 tonnes per day and Fortuna said thanks to continued exploration success it may consider building a plant to up mill rates by another 50%.
Caylloma delivered 540,000oz silver plus 3.9 million pounds of lead, 6.5 million pounds of zinc and some gold.
On the whole silver production jumped 55% and gold more than 80% compared to the same quarter last year.
Image courtesy of the company
