September 04, 2012 (Financial Press) The latest news from El Tigre Silver Corp. confirms its way to achieving its goal of near-term gold and silver production.
The Canada-based silver and gold exploration and development company has targeted near-term production (within one year)as part of its ongoing development plan to develop the sizeable and historically proven gold and silver potential held in its 431 square kilometer silver and gold project in Sonora, Mexico.
El Tigre has slated two stages of development to grow the company while minimizing shareholder dilution. The first stage is the rapid development of the tailings and waste dumps left over from past production on its silver and gold project. The second stage is the continued exploration and development of the remainder of its 100% owned El Tigre silver project.
The first stage is already underway. El Tigre is already in the later stages of developing production from the tailings and waste dumps on its project left over from the Lucky Tiger Combination Gold Mining Company.
The silver and gold mine has a long history which is critical to creating the opportunity El Tigre has identified. The mine was initially discovered in 1896. It was put into production in 1903. It produced silver and gold until 1938. Total production from the mine is estimated to have been 70 to 75 million ounces of silver and 325,000 to 350,000 ounces of gold based on historical records.
Mining technology from 100 years ago was not as efficient as it is today. The recoveries recorded at the El Tigre mine with the cyanide leaching process were 93-95%, with ore delivered to the production facility averaging 40 ounces silver per ton and 0.25 ounces gold per ton with 0.4% Cu, 1.1% Pb, and 1.4% Zn. This meant that the tailings discharged from the mining process likely had grades that would reflect 2.0-2.8 oz per ton silver.
El Tigres testing and exploration of the tailings and waste dumps confirms its original estimation that the tailings and waste dumps still contain significant mineralization. Assays of the tailings done by the Company in December 2011 show 2.4-2.8 oz per ton Ag and 0.009-0.01 oz per ton Au.
The company has sampled three waste dumps on the project and the numbers are strong (note: sampling results exclude some of the highest grade samples of the project):
El Tigre Silver Tailings and Waste Dump Project
Silver and Gold Grades
Waste Dump Samples Ave Silver Grade (g/t) Ave Gold Grade (g/t) High/Low Silver
Grade (g/t) High/Low Gold Grade (g/t)
Level 4 19 245.5 0.95 914/123 3.47/0.29
Gold Hill 7 325.1 2.72 510/185 34.0/1.73
Level 7 44 230 0.89 937/16.3 5.3/0.064
The table shows the mineralization in the waste dumps is high. When the assay results came in, Stuart Ross, El Tigres president and chief executive officer, stated, “We are encouraged that the El Tigre project continues to produce excellent results from our ongoing evaluation program to identify silver and gold resources.
El Tigres early study of the tailings estimated between 750,000 and 800,000 tonnes of material that can be reprocessed. Further, metallurgical testing found estimated recovery rates of 79% for the silver and 94% for the gold.
This gives El Tigre the opportunity to build its own production facility focused solely on the revenue from its proposed tailings and waste dump operations with significantly less capital expenditure (capex) than would be required to build a full scale mine processing facility.
The next steps for El Tigre on the tailings project are to obtain operation permits and construction projects. Both of those are already underway.
Targeting low-capex, production from high-grade, tailings and historic waste is the first stage of the El Tigres development. The second is to take any net revenues from that production and apply them to the further exploration and expansion of multiple silver and gold targets located on the concessions surrounding the past-producing high-grade mine. The result of diamond core drilling on these concessions is already showing excellent gold and silver potential.
El Tigres primary target area identified for further exploration is the Gold Hill project.
This project is held entirely within its 100% owned mineral concessions and it is being explored for the first time in the drilling program that is underway. It is made up of multiple vein structures which have been mined historically and produced significant amounts of gold and silver.
There are two veins on the Gold Hill project and the one with the highest potential is the El Tigre vein.
The El Tigre vein target on Gold Hill is an estimated 1.2 km long and 70 to 80 meters wide. The companys drilling on the El Tigre vein has resulted in multiple intercepts containing gold and silver.
Full drill core assay results can be found on pages 24 and 25 of the El Tigres Investor Presentation here.
El Tigre sees more potential in these veins though. It has laid out an aggressive exploration and development plan that will begin following the late summer rainy season in Sonora, Mexico. The drilling program will include the remaining 2,700 metres of an estimated 5,000 meters of drilling aimed at extending the known length of the veins already discovered.
The goal of the drilling program is to provide enough data to complete a resource model for the Gold Hill disseminated mineralization.
The company also plans to complete preliminary metallurgical testing to estimate the recovery rates from the drilling completed.
El Tigres potential as a near-term silver and gold producer and the potential mineralization contained in its concessions has attracted some major investors into the company.
Its largest three outside shareholders include Pinetree Capital, Sprott Asset Management L.P., and Federals Silver Corp. The last of those shareholders, Federals Silver Corp., purchased an additional 2.4 million shares in July 2012. This purchase increased Federals Silvers total stake in El Tigre to 28.65% of the outstanding shares. Federals Silver Corp. is the vendor of the El Tigre properties.
These three shareholders along with management and directors own a total of 47.9% of the outstanding share capital of El Tigre Silver Corp.
There are currently just fewer than 42 million shares outstanding. At recent price of 25 cents per share, the companys market capitalization is approximately $10.5 million.
Steven D. Craig, CPG and Vice President of Exploration for El Tigre is the Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101 for El Tigre.
A current resource estimate and related feasibility study has not been completed and there is no certainty the proposed operation will be economically viable.
Learn more about El Tigre Silver Corp at http://www.eltigresilvercorp.com.
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