La Negra Silver Project
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
- According to the madien resource estimate (November 2023) La Negra contains 5.26 million tonnes of 21.97 million AgEq ounces at 129.3 g/t Ag Eq in the indicated category and 1.25 million tonnes of 4.6 million AgEq ounces at 114.6 g/t AgEq in the inferred category.
- The La Negra silver discovery was made in the fall of 2014 and is one of several new prospects recently identified within a 25 x 15 km mineralized corridor, referred to as the 'Promontorio Mineral Belt, which includes the Promontorio Silver Resource, located 7 kilometres south of La Negra,
- La Negra was optioned to Pan American Silver Corp., between 2016 to June 2019, during which time Pan American Silver invested US$3.6 million in expenditures on advancing the project.
- To date, 95 drill holes have been completed by Kootenay and Pan American Silver with most returning high grade, wide spread silver mineralization from surface to a vertical depth of over 300 metres; click the following link to view the comprehensive results of all the drill holes completed to date: La Negra Drill Results
- The initial 25 drill holes in the discovery program averaged 107 g/t silver in the breccia, with continuous mineralization with widths of up to 200 metres and averaged 150g/t silver in the breccia using a 75 g/t cutoff.
- Drill hole LN 21 has been the best hole to date with 156 g/t silver over 200 metres including the bottom 50 metres with 420 g/t and 6 metres of 1337 g/t silver.
- Potential for an attractive open pit scenario is supported by a prominent hill top formed by mineralization and good silver grades. Mineralization is hosted in a diatreme breccia, which also indicates a depth potential of several hundreds of metres.
- Ongoing ground exploration within a 2-3 kilometre radius of the La Negra Breccia has identified two high priority mineralized trends with clear underlying geologic controls. These have been named the 'La Negra silver trend' and 'Vania'. Additional areas of silver and gold mineralization identified apart from these trends are currently being evaluated.
View the full Promontorio-La Negra Resource Estimate 43-101 Report
OVERVIEW
The La Negra silver discovery is situated only 7 kilometres north of the Promontorio Silver Resource within the Promontorio Mineral Belt, in the state of Sonora, Mexico. The Promontorio Mineral Belt was previously under option to Pan American Silver Corp., between 2016 to June 2019, during which time Pan American Silver invested US$3.6 million in expenditures on advancing the project. To date, Kootenay and Pan American Silver have completed two successful drill programs totaling 95 drill holes over approximately 17,000 meters on the La Negra silver discovery with most drill holes returning significant and consistent intervals of high grade, widespread silver mineralization extending from surface to depth of 300 metres. Drilling has also confirmed the presence of a second breccia zone further to the south, which currently remains open at depth.
La Negra Resource Estimate
The mineral resource estimates (“MRE”) have been prepared by Sue Bird, M Sc., P.Eng., Geological and Mining Engineer of by Moose Mountain Technical Services ("MMTS") in accordance with NI 43-101 standards (May 9, 2016), CIM Definition Standards (May 19, 2014) with guidance from CIM Best Practice Guidelines (November 29, 2019).
2023 Resource Statement for the La Negra Deposit.
ZONE |
CLASS |
Cutoff |
In Situ Grades and Metal Content |
||||||
AgEq |
Tonnage (kt) |
AgEq |
Ag |
Au |
AgEq Metal (kOz) |
Ag |
Au Metal (kOz) |
||
Total |
Indicated |
25 |
7,282 |
102.5 |
99.8 |
0.061 |
24,000 |
23,370 |
14.2 |
30 |
6,463 |
112.0 |
109.2 |
0.063 |
23,280 |
22,690 |
13.2 |
||
35 |
5,821 |
120.8 |
117.9 |
0.065 |
22,610 |
22,060 |
12.2 |
||
40 |
5,285 |
129.3 |
126.3 |
0.067 |
21,970 |
21,450 |
11.4 |
||
45 |
4,821 |
137.6 |
134.5 |
0.069 |
21,330 |
20,850 |
10.7 |
||
50 |
4,425 |
145.7 |
142.5 |
0.071 |
20,730 |
20,280 |
10.0 |
||
Inferred |
25 |
1,831 |
88.8 |
86.5 |
0.055 |
5,230 |
5,090 |
3.2 |
|
30 |
1,607 |
97.3 |
94.9 |
0.057 |
5,030 |
4,900 |
3.0 |
||
35 |
1,415 |
106.1 |
103.7 |
0.059 |
4,830 |
4,720 |
2.7 |
||
40 |
1,257 |
114.8 |
112.2 |
0.060 |
4,640 |
4,540 |
2.4 |
||
45 |
1,111 |
124.2 |
121.6 |
0.061 |
4,440 |
4,340 |
2.2 |
||
50 |
993 |
133.5 |
130.8 |
0.061 |
4,260 |
4,180 |
2.0 |
Notes to the 2023 La Negra Resource Tables:
1 Resources are reported using the 2014 CIM Definition Standards and were estimated using the 2019 CIM Best Practices Guidelines, as required by NI43-101
2.The base case Mineral Resource has been confined by "reasonable prospects of eventual economic extraction" shape using the following assumptions:
- Metal prices of US$22/oz Silver, US$1800/oz Gold
- Recovery is assumed to be as for dore. Metallurgical recovery of 82% Silver and 77% Gold in the Oxide zone, 85% Silver and 73% Gold in the Mixed zone, and 90% Silver and 31% Gold in the Sulfide zone.
- Payable metal of 99% for Silver and Gold. Offsite costs (transport, smelter treatment and refining) of US$0.25/oz Silver and US$10/oz gold.
- Processing, General, and Administrative (G&A) costs of US$ 12/ tonne milled.Mining cost of US$2.00/tonne
- 50 degree pit slopes with the 150% price case pit shell is used for the confining shape
3.The resulting NSR = Ag*US$0.69/g*Zone Ag Recovery% 0.82 + Au*US$56.97/g*Zone Au Recovery 0.77%
4.Silver Equivalent (AgEq) = NSR / (US$0.69/g* Ag Recovery% 0.82)
5.The specific gravity is assigned by rock type as 2.52 in Oxides, 2.59 in Mixes and 2.61 in Sulfides
6.Numbers may not add due to rounding.
WORK PREFORMED
Ongoing exploration by Kootenay’s technical team in 2014, resulted in the discovery of La Negra Breccia. Initial exploration on the La Negra prospect included airborne geophysics, petrographic analysis, trenching and surface sampling. These programs validated extensive silver mineralization over a large surface area measuring approximately 100 to 200 metres in width by 500 metres in length. To follow up the initial exploration programs, Kootenay completed a Phase I drill program on La Negra, which returned significant and consistent intervals of high grade, widespread silver mineralization extending from surface to depth, confirming a substantial new silver discovery. In 2015, Kootenay carried out a Phase II drill program that further confirmed the continuity of silver grades and the consistency of silver mineralization to depth within the core of the diatreme breccia. These results further reinforced La Negra's future as a potential low-cost, open pittable silver resource, which ultimately led to Pan America Silver's interest in the project.
Pan American Silver began managing the exploration program in April 2016 and commenced re-logging drill core, geological mapping and re-interpretation, and completed 62 km of magnetic ground surveys. A 3,500-meter drilling program was initiated by Pan American Silver in July 2016, (with the objective of infilling the Kootenay drilling) with coverage to 50 meter centres and testing the along-strike and down dip extents, as well as following up on geophysical and geological anomalies located elsewhere within the Promontorio concessions. Following the drilling by Pan American Silver, it was reported that a series of deeper infill drill holes from the first 12 holes of the 2016 program confirmed high-grade results from previous drilling conducted by Kootenay on La Negra (See Kootenay News release October 25, 2016). Drill results also confirmed the presence of a second breccia zone further to the south, which currently remains open at depth. Based on these successes, Pan American Silver extended the 2016 drill program by approximately 2,000 meters, which was also successful in intercepting consistent high-grade silver mineralization at depth (See Kootenay News release February 15, 2017).
In June 2019, after investing US$3.6 million in expenditures on advancing the project, Pan American Silver relinquished its right to earn a 75% interest in the Promontorio Mineral Belt. Subsequent to the return of the project, Kootenay has received and collated data of work performed by Pan American to update La Negra's digital data room in response to requests from other interested parties to review its technical information.
.
METALLURGICAL INFORMATION
43-101 Metallurgical Indications: At La Negra, the recoveries shown in the following table have been used for the resource estimate. These are based on the average results for each oxidation type tested in the 2018 test program.
Table 1-4: Metallurgical Recovery Assumptions – La Negra Recovery |
|||
Au |
Ag |
||
Oxide |
77% |
82% |
|
Mix |
73% |
85% |
|
Sulfide |
31% |
90% |
Results from preliminary metallurgical testing of La Negra show potential for high silver recoveries by both leach extraction and flotation methods. Silver extraction in seven bottle roll tests (leach tests) ranged from 71 to 90%. Silver extraction in three rougher flotation tests ranged from 85 to 98%. Importantly, silver extraction by leaching was not influenced by sulphide sulphur content, and a sample of material from 100 to 200 metres below surface had 89% extraction in a bottle roll test. High silver recoveries by leaching, including in sulphide material, indicate potential for silver to be recovered on site in a dore, substantially reducing costs and discounts associated with a sulphide concentrate produced by flotation.
Metallurgical test work was completed by Kappes Cassiday and Associates of Reno, Nevada, under the direction of Hans Smit, P.Geo, a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. Seven samples were created for testing comprised of material from 9 or 10 sub-samples of drill core rejects from across the area drilled and grouped by specific vertical depth and grade ranges. Bottle roll leach tests were conducted on a 1,000 gram portion of each sample that was ring and puck pulverized to a target size of 80% passing 0.075 millimetres. Tests were run for a total of 96 hours, but in most tests the majority of the silver was recovered in the first 2 to 4 hours. Cyanide and lime inputs were not optimized.