お知らせ • Jun 02
Bunker Hill Mining Corp. Reports Exploration Results And Expands High-Grade Silver-Lead Cate-8 Vein Discovery
Bunker Hill Mining Corp. reported further successful results from the ongoing exploration drill program testing the high-grade silver-lead Cate-8 Vein discovery adjacent to current development in the upper area of the Bunker Hill mine. Seven holes have been drilled to date for a total of 2,750 feet from the 8 Level. Assay results for the first five drillholes show significant intercepts. The last two drill holes, BHE26-06 and BHE26-07, also both intersected siderite-galena veins ranging from 1 to 6 feet in length; these holes have been logged, and samples have been submitted to the assay lab. Exploration Target Model Estimate for Cate-8 Vein indicates a range of 50,174-167,821 tons at a grade of 9.32-5.75 oz/ton AgEq, with potential to expand through additional drilling. Drill Hole BHE26-02: 28.6ft length at 5.06 oz AgEq per ton (173.6 AgEq g/t), 280 ft from current mine development. Drill Hole BHE26-03: 15.5ft length at 11.34 oz AgEq per ton (388.79 AgEq g/t), 310 ft from current mine development. This new high-grade silver discovery supports the objective of restoring the mine’s metal mix to its historic 50% silver and 50% base metals earlier than expected. The first five drill holes into the Cate-8 Target intercepted intervals of lead-silver-zinc mineralization comprised of multiple discrete high-grade vein structures. Geologic modeling indicates that the mineralization is subparallel to the largest historically mined orebody at Bunker Hill, the March Stope, which was worked continuously from 1885 to 1936, producing a total of approximately 567,600 tons of lead, 24,690,000 ounces of silver and 106,400 tons of zinc from 4,730,000 tons of material at grades of 12% lead, 5.22 oz/ton silver and 2.25% zinc. The Cate-8 Target was initially interpreted as being in the “Galena-Quartz” series of veins based on high silver and lead grades; these veins were historically mined at lower levels of the Bunker Hill Mine and were the source of much of the historic silver production. The presence of abundant siderite with galena in detailed logging of all drillholes, coupled with their location below the Cate Fault Zone, indicates that the target is a “Hybrid-Type” body of mineralization. Hybrid-Type mineralization is typified by silver-bearing galena deposition around earlier sphalerite-pyrite-siderite veins, resulting in silver, zinc and lead grades in the same zone. Hybrid mineralization provided a significant portion of historic mine production, with grades and tonnages generally exceeding those of discrete vein structures. The projection of the modeled Cate-8 Vein indicates that the structure may continue to intersect with the Francis-Bar Vein system at depth, a Galena-Quartz Vein set with substantial historic production at deeper levels of the Mine. Francis Vein: 972,000 tons at 11.84% Pb, 5.68 oz/ton Ag and 4.47% Zn, containing 115,100 tons lead, 5,520,000 ounces of silver and 43,400 tons of zinc. Francis FW Vein: 117,600 tons at 8.2% Pb, 4.47 oz/ton Ag, and 1.56% Zn, containing 9,600 tons lead, 525,700 ounces of silver and 1,830 tons of zinc. Barr Vein: 254,000 tons at 8.5% Pb, 3.76 oz/ton Ag, and 0.88% Zn, containing 21,600 tons lead, 955,100 ounces of silver and 2,230 tons of zinc. Hybrid ore bodies are generally subparallel to the Cate Fault Zone, a pre-existing zone of weakness that has been geologically reactivated numerous times. The new drill intercepts in the Cate-8 Target indicate good potential for untested hybrid mineralized zones in the footwall of the Cate Fault, an area almost entirely ignored by historic exploration. The Cate-8 Target is currently defined by five modern core holes and three historic drillholes, which outline a tabular zone of continuous lead-silver mineralization between the 7 and the 9 Levels of the Bunker Hill Mine (2,800 feet to 2,400 feet msl). The Cate-8 Veins strike at 340 azimuth, with a dip of 30 degrees to the west, and a current geologically modeled shape extending for 500 feet along strike, and 730 feet down dip based on interpretation of drill intercepts. Two distinct veins have been identified: a lower footwall vein (V01) with a true thickness (from current geologic modeling) of 1.5–4 feet, and an upper vein (V02) with a true thickness of 2–11 feet. These veins are up to 13 feet apart in current modelling and coalesce at certain points. The Bunker Hill geological team have developed an exploration target estimate for the Cate-8 Vein in Maptek Vulcan 3D mining software, comprising two distinct vein strands, based on 3D modeling of drill intercepts. Tonnage and grade ranges of the exploration target are preliminary and conceptual in nature, are not based on any economic factors other than metal prices and probable metal recoveries, and do not represent any mineral resource estimate. Vein geometries were defined by drill intercepts only, with the lower V01 Vein extrapolated for 80 feet along strike and dip, and the upper V02 Vein extrapolated for 135 feet along strike and dip. Grade estimation was completed using inverse-distance cubed weighting and dynamically oriented search ellipses controlled by the block-model dip direction, dip, and plunge fields, allowing the estimation search to follow the interpreted vein geometry. A tonnage factor of 11.38 cu ft/ton was used from mine production and pre-feasibility studies. The statistical estimate is restricted to assay data from five current core holes and three historic core holes drilled by Bunker Hill Mining in the 1970s (1694, 1764, 1768). Bunker geologists have original logs with hard-copy assay and survey data for the historic drill holes, but the drill cores have been discarded. The exploration target model should be considered preliminary at this stage because the internal sample assays have not yet been returned. As a result, for targeting purposes, the V01 and V02 domains are currently treated together as a combined internal exploration shape. Due to the polymetallic nature of the Hybrid mineralization in the Cate-8 Vein, silver-equivalent grades were determined for each sample interval to directly assess the total metal value of mineralization in the exploration target model. Silver Equivalent grade (AgEq) was calculated using long-term metal price forecasts of USD 76.36/troy ounce silver, USD 0.89/lb lead and USD 1.41/lb zinc (CIBC 2026 Consensus), with recovery rates of 91.6% for silver, 88.6% for lead and 86.8% for zinc (Bunker Hill Mining Pre-feasibility Study, 2022). Using these parameters, the metal equivalent factors are 1% zinc = 12.66 g/t AgEq, and 1% lead = 7.99 g/t AgEq, with total AgEq calculated with the formula: AgEq g/t=Ag g/t + (Zn% 12.66) + (Pb% 7.99).
