VANCOUVER, BC, April 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ – SilverCrest Metals Inc. (“SilverCrest” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce additional results from its initial drill program at its El Picacho Property (“Picacho” or the “Property”) located near Bacoachi, Sonora, Mexico. Picacho is located approximately 85 km by road northeast of the Company’s Las Chispas project along a predominantly paved highway.

Drill results reported in this release are from 56,780 metres (247 drill holes) targeting the Picacho Zone which now includes five adjacent and subparallel epithermal veins including; the Picacho Main Vein (“Picacho Main” with historic resource), Picacho Hanging Wall Vein (“Picacho HW”, see news release dated February 24, 2021), Picacho Hanging Wall 2 Vein (“Picacho HW2”, new discovery), Picacho Hanging Wall 3 Vein (“Picacho HW3”, new discovery) and Picacho Footwall Vein (“Picacho FW”, new discovery) (see Tables below and attached Figures).

Highlights:

• Initial Drilling of Historic Resource Completed, Expansion at Picacho Zone – A total of 68,200 metres (289 drill holes) at the Picacho Zone have been drilled to date including holes reported in a news release dated February 24, 2021. The focus of drilling was to better understand, redefine and potentially expand the Picacho Main Vein historic unverified resource¹ of 7.8 million ounces silver equivalent (“AgEq”²) grading 8.50 grams per tonne (“gpt”) gold (“Au”) and 40.0 gpt silver (“Ag”), or 677 gpt AgEq. Overall, the Picacho Main and Picacho HW veins have expanded, and new vein discoveries are being reported within the Picacho Zone.
• Picacho Main Vein Primary Focus of Drilling – Picacho Main Vein results, within a footprint of greater than 150 gpt AgEq (“Footprint”), are reported in this release. The average grade of these results is 5.42 gpt Au and 23.9 gpt Ag, or 431 gpt AgEq with an average estimated true width (“ETW”) of 2.4 metres. Drilling in the Picacho Main Vein remains shallow with a maximum vertical drilled depth of approximately 300 metres and an approximate vein strike length of 550 metres. Drill spacing in the Footprint averages 35 metres.
• New Vein Discoveries – While drilling the Picacho Main and Picacho HW veins, three new adjacent vein discoveries were intercepted. The cumulative strike length, within the defined Footprint for these veins, is approximately 400 metres. Overall, these veins average 7.47 gpt Au and 30.3 gpt Ag, or 591 gpt AgEq with an average true width of 0.9 metres.
• Early-Stage Exploration, Drilling Continues – Currently less than 30% of the Property has had any mapping or sampling completed. Ongoing mapping, sampling, underground surveying of historical workings, target generation and geophysical interpretation continues as part of an early-stage exploration strategy. Two drills are expected to be active at Picacho throughout Q2, 2022.

¹ Historic Resource Qualification: Picacho Main Vein has a historic unverified mineral resource estimate reported in 2010 (Wheatley, 2010) using 14 drill holes, underground channel sampling results and a polygonal estimation method. The reported estimate had 364,381 tonnes grading 8.54 gpt Au and 40.38 gpt Ag, or 100,060 ounces of Au and 473,052 ounces of Ag using a 1 gpt Au cutoff. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimates as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. The Company is not treating this information as current mineral resources or reserves, has not verified this information and is not relying on it. The Company plans on using the historical drilling and estimates to help guide its exploratory drilling work.
² AgEq based on 75(Ag):1(Au) calculated using long-term silver and gold prices of US$20 per ounce silver and US$1,500 per ounce gold.

N. Eric Fier, CPG, P.Eng, and CEO, remarked, “We are encouraged by our findings in the early days of exploration at Picacho.  Our initial drill program at the Property was focused on leveraging historic work to efficiently allocate our capital. This work program was successful in gathering significant information pertaining to the historic resource, expanding the Footprint, and highlighting the potential for further growth. Our objective is to delineate an initial mineral resource estimate and, while work remains to achieve this objective, we are encouraged by the initial results at Picacho. We are excited to continue with our strategy of finding high value, lower risk targets with modest hurdle rates for success.”

Picacho was a historic gold and silver producer, with the first noted production in late 1800s with grades greater than 15 gpt gold (Bird, 1904). The Property was purchased by the Company in August 2020 for a total consideration of US$2.4 million, including government back taxes, for 100% ownership in 11 mining concessions totaling approximately 7,060 hectares.

Mineralization at Picacho is hosted within multiple low-sulphidation epithermal veins which include banded quartz, quartz-calcite breccia, quartz and calcite stockwork, and structures with pyrite, argentite, minor chalcopyrite and minor sphalerite being the predominant sulphide minerals. Initial drilling at the Property suggests the Picacho Zone is a gold dominant system with geological similarities to nearby Las Chispas and Santa Elena (discovered, developed and operated by the Company’s predecessor, SilverCrest Mines, until late 2015).

Drilling to date at the Picacho Zone has expanded the mineralized footprint of the previous historic unverified resource in the Picacho Main Vein and defined a cumulative mineralized footprint of approximately 950 metres along vein strike and a maximum of approximately 300 metres down vein dip from surface. Mapping, sampling and drilling suggest there is potential for the strike length to be extended further with the veins remaining open to the northwest, southeast and down dip. Besides the Picacho Main Vein, the most continuous vein is the Picacho HW Vein. The new veins, including Picacho HW2, Picacho HW3 and Picacho FW, have not been primary targets of drilling to date.

A more detailed summary of the results for this release are presented below (see Figures) and are in addition to those previously released on February 24, 2021. Results remain outstanding for an additional 27,500 metres of drilling at other veins at Picacho.

• Picacho Main Vein
  • Measures 550 metres along strike, averages 300 metres to depth with an average grade (uncut, undiluted), reported today, of 5.42 gpt Au and 23.9 gpt Ag, or 431 gpt AgEq with an ETW of 2.4 metres. The most significant drill intercept being reported today is hole PI21-195 at 3.7 metres of ETW grading 20.86 gpt Au and 72.9 gpt Ag, or 1,638 gpt AgEq.
  • Considering all drilling to date, Picacho Main has an average grade of 6.19 gpt Au and 31.8 gpt Ag, or 497 gpt AgEq and an ETW of 2.7 metres.
• Picacho Hanging Wall Vein
  • Measures 500 metres along strike, averages 200 metres to depth with an average grade, (uncut, undiluted) reported today of 4.38 gpt Au and 37.6 gpt Ag, or 366 gpt AgEq with an ETW of 1.5 metres. The most significant drill intercept is hole PI21-153 at 1.3 metres of ETW grading 42.3 gpt Au and 542.0 gpt Ag, or 3,714 gpt AgEq.
• Picacho Hanging Wall 2 Vein
  • Measures 200 metres along strike, averages 135 metres to depth with an average grade (uncut, undiluted), reported to date, of 6.32 gpt Au and 46.1 gpt Ag, or 520 gpt AgEq with an ETW of 0.8 metres. The most significant drill intercept is hole PI21-50 at 2.8 metres of ETW grading 11.9 gpt Au and 21.1 gpt Ag, or 912 gpt AgEq.
• Picacho Hanging Wall 3 Vein
  • Measures 80 metres along strike, averages 100 metres to depth with an average grade (uncut, undiluted), reported to date, of 5.88 gpt Au and 8.7 gpt Ag, or 450 gpt AgEq with an ETW of 0.5 metres. The most significant drill intercept is hole PI21-182 at 0.8 metres of ETW grading 10.71 gpt Au and 7 gpt Ag, or 810 gpt AgEq.
• Picacho Footwall Vein
  • Measures 100 metres along strike, averages 175 metres to depth with an average grade (uncut, undiluted), reported to date, of 9.45 gpt Au and 16.1 gpt Ag, or 725 gpt AgEq with an ETW of 1.3 metres. The most significant drill intercept is hole PI22-285 at 1.7 metres of ETW grading 37.09 gpt Au and 32.5 gpt Ag, or 2,815 gpt AgEq.

Drill intercept highlights from the program that are reported in this release are tabulated below. All grades are reported as uncapped and undiluted and based on a 150 gpt AgEq cut-off grade. This cut-off grade is used to evaluate exploration targets in the initial stages of work and may differ from the cut-off grade used for future resource estimations. The same drill hole number may be shown for different veins based on the same hole intercepting multiple veins.

All assays were completed by ALS Chemex in Hermosillo, Mexico, and North Vancouver, BC, Canada.

The drill results also include that intercepted vein but were below the 150 gpt AgEq cut-off:  PI21-44, PI21-47, PI21-48,  PI21-51, PI21-53 to PI21-55, PI21-57, PI21-58 to PI21-60, PI21-62, PI21-64, PI21-67 to PI21-75, PI21-77, PI21-79 PI21-80 to PI21-101, PI21-104, PI21-108, PI21-111, PI21-113, PI21-115, PI21-118, PI21-123, PI21-125, PI21-126, PI21-128, PI21-130, PI21-133, PI21-141, PI21-147 to PI21-149, PI21-152, PI21-157, PI21-158, PI21-160, PI21-164 to PI21-167, PI21-171 to PI21-173, PI21-178 to PI21-180, PI21-181, PI21-184, PI21-185, PI21-187, PI21-189 to PI21-192, PI21-198, PI21-199, PI21-201 to PI21-204, PI21-206, PI21-208, PI21-210, PI21-212, PI21-217, PI21-219, PI21-220, PI21-225, PI21-228, PI21-230, PI21-232, PI21-234, PI21-235, PI21-239 to PI21-241, PI21-244, PI21-246, PI21-255, PI21-256, PI22-259, PI22-267, PI22-268 PI22-271, PI22-273, PI22-283, PI22-288, PI22-289.

2022 Picacho Program
The H1, 2022 exploration focus at Picacho is to map and sample unexplored areas and generate new drill targets. SilverCrest currently has two drill rigs operating at Picacho. Plans for the H2, 2022 exploration program will be determined as results are received and evaluated from the H1, 2022 program.

The Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects for this news release is N. Eric Fier, CPG, P.Eng, and CEO for SilverCrest, who has reviewed and approved its contents.

ABOUT SILVERCREST METALS INC.
SilverCrest is a Canadian precious metals exploration and development company headquartered in Vancouver, BC, that is focused on new discoveries, value-added acquisitions and targeting production in Mexico’s historic precious metal districts. The Company’s top priority is on the high-grade, historic Las Chispas mining district in Sonora, Mexico, where it has completed a feasibility study on the Las Chispas Project and is proceeding with mine construction. Start-up of processing at the Las Chispas Mine is targeted in Q2, 2022. SilverCrest is the first company to successfully drill-test the historic Las Chispas Property resulting in numerous high-grade precious metal discoveries. The Company is led by a proven management team in all aspects of the precious metal mining sector, including taking projects through discovery, finance, on time and on budget construction, and production.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains “forward-looking statements” and “forward-looking information” (collectively “forward-looking statements”) within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. These include, without limitation, statements with respect to: the strategic plans, timing and expectations for the Company’s exploration programs at El Picacho Property, estimates of mineralization and plans for future exploration work, and the start-up of processing at the Las Chispas Mine in Q2, 2022. Such forward looking statements or information are based on a number of assumptions, which may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things: impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; the reliability of mineralization estimates, mining and development costs the conditions in general economic and financial markets; availability of skilled labour; timing and amount of expenditures related to rehabilitation and drilling programs; and effects of regulation by governmental agencies. The actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of risk factors including: uncertainty as to the impact and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic; the timing and content of work programs; results of exploration activities; the interpretation of drilling results and other geological data; receipt, maintenance and security of permits and mineral property titles; environmental and other regulatory risks; project cost overruns or unanticipated costs and expenses; and general market and industry conditions. Forward-looking statements are based on the expectations and opinions of the Company’s management on the date the statements are made. The assumptions used in the preparation of such statements, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date the statements were made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements included in this news release if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as otherwise required by applicable law.

N. Eric Fier, CPG, P.Eng
Chief Executive Officer
SilverCrest Metals Inc.

SOURCE SilverCrest Metals Inc.

Original Article: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/silvercrest-announces-additional-el-picacho-drill-results-301524598.html