TORONTO, Dec. 13, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Honey Badger Silver Inc. (TSX-V: TUF) (“Honey Badger” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce initial results from its newly-acquired, 100%-owned, 5,690 hectare Plata Silver Property (“Plata”) located in east-central Yukon. Silver, lead and zinc assays from five composite grab samples of hand sorted material collected from 90 ore bags left behind by historic miners at Plata are listed below:
- 5,190 g/t silver, 23.4% lead and 3.62% zinc;
- 4,820 g/t silver, 13.15% lead and 2.78% zinc;
- 4,000 g/t silver, 20.97% lead and 3.41 g/t zinc;
- 3,500 g/t silver, 17.5% lead and 3.07% zinc; and
- 2,930 g/t silver, 10.5% lead and 2.26% zinc.
These preliminary results confirm the potential for very high-grade silver mineralization at Plata. Gold assays for these five composite samples are pending as are assay results from rock and channel samples collected during Honey Badger’s Phase 1 Summer Work Program at Plata.
The Plata Silver Property lies within the Tintina Gold Belt and displays numerous similarities to the world-class Keno Hill Mining Camp, Canada’s second largest primary producer of silver, located 165 km west of the Plata Silver Property. Keno Hill produced more than 200 million ounces of silver at an average grade of 44 ounces per ton (oz/t) of silver from approximately thirty-five vein deposits between 1913 and 1989(1).
Historical surface trenching and shallow drilling at the Plata Property identified 32 mineralized veins and stockwork zones. Several areas of the property were mined historically for high-grade mineralization yielding 9,020 kg (290,000 oz) of silver from a reported 2,041 tonnes of hand-sorted material, equivalent to a recovered silver grade of approximately 4,420 grams per tonne (g/t) silver.
2021 WORK PROGRAM
Honey Badger completed the planned Phase 1 program on the property on August 22, 2021. The program comprised detailed structural and lithological mapping in the core region of the property, accompanied by rock and channel sampling of several historical occurrences. In all, 48 samples were collected during the Phase 1 program, in addition to five composite grab samples from approximately 90 historic ore bags. Delays at the assay labs have been a common occurrence in releasing timely results from the program. Assay results from the rock and channel sampling program will be released once they have been received and analyzed by the Company.
HISTORIC ORE BAG SAMPLING PROGRAM
During the 2021 program five composite grab samples were collected from approximately 90 partially decomposed ore bags of high-grade, hand-sorted vein material from the P4 and P6 veins. These samples were collected by miners in the past and cached at the Plata airstrip, in order to determine the approximate grade of the mined material. Table 1 below lists the assay results for the samples taken from the ore bags.
Table 1 – Assays for composite samples from hand-sorted ore bags:
| Type | Ag (g/t) | Pb (%) | Zn (%) |
| Composite | 5,190 | 23.4 | 3.62 |
| Composite | 4,820 | 13.15 | 2.78 |
| Composite | 4,000 | 20.97 | 3.41 |
| Composite | 3,500 | 17.5 | 3.07 |
| Composite | 2,930 | 10.5 | 2.26 |
Gold assays from these grab samples are still pending.
GEOLOGICAL OVERVIEW
The Plata property lies within the Selwyn basin, a large Proterozoic to Paleozoic tectonostratigraphic entity that covers much of central and eastern Yukon. Selwyn basin stratigraphy hosts numerous syn-genetic zinc-lead-silver mineral deposits including: the Tom, Jason and other deposits in the MacPass area, several deposits in the Howard’s Pass area, and the Faro, Grum and other deposits in the Anvil mining district. Selwyn basin is also host to the Marg volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit and district-scale epigenetic mineral deposits, including the silver-lead zinc deposits of the Keno Hill Mining Camp and intrusion-related gold deposits of the Tintina gold belt.
Figure 1: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/fd3b6546-718e-4270-ae3f-63e4f7a3ce40
Geology within the Plata property is characterized by Upper Proterozoic, Paleozoic and early Mesozoic sedimentary rocks that are imbricated by southeast-striking, southwest-dipping thrust faults, as shown on the property geology map below. Narrow mid-Cretaceous intrusive dykes parallel thrust surfaces. Neoproterozoic Hyland Group rocks comprised of quartz-rich sandstone, grits, shale and minor limestone form much of the hanging wall of the Plata thrust, the main structure running through the property. Devonian to Mississippian shale and chert of the Earn Group unconformably overlie the Hyland Group and are structurally contained between the Plata thrust and the Rogue thrust to the north. The Triassic aged Jones Lake Formation is found in the northern part of the property where it is structurally underlying the Earn Group.
Figure 2: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b0d0b7dc-68cf-46fc-92ab-d896833623c2
A total of 32 separate mineral showings have been identified to date on the Plata property as shown on the geology map. The core of the property has seen most of the historical work to date and hosts the P1 through P6 zones. Mineralization on the property is divided into in three main types:
1) High-grade argentiferous siderite-sulphide veins generally found as southwest striking, steeply dipping fault veins (Type I). The best mineralized Type I veins occur in dilatant zones developed steeply dipping faults that formed in competent strata, such as Hyland Group quartz-rich siliciclastic rocks and Earn Group chert. Mineralized zones range from a few centimetres to 10m wide and up to 100m long. Zones are characterized by disseminated to massive galena, tetrahedrite and sphalerite within a gangue of siderite and minor quartz, barite and calcite. The zones commonly grade between 1700 and 10,000 g/t silver with 30 to 70% lead. The P2 zone is the best example of Type II mineralization; however, numerous showings are located outside of the P2 zone in both the hanging wall and the foot wall of the Plata thrust.
2) High- to medium-grade auriferous and argentiferous, sulphide-quartz-clay veins located along the Plata thrust and associated structures (Type II). These veins have good lateral and downdip consistency with strike-lengths of up to 800 m and downdip extension of up to 580 m reported. The P3 and P4 zones host Type II veins and the two zones combined is known as the Aho zone because of the consistency in mineralization between the zones. Type III veins consist of fine- to medium grained bands of arsenopyrite, pyrite, galena, boulangerite, tetrahedrite and sphalerite in quartz and clay. Grades from drill core through Type II veins typically return between 5 and 1200 g/t silver with 0.3 to 8.5 g/t gold, 1 to 8% lead and 1 to 6% zinc over thickness of 0.3 and 2 m. High-grade grab samples of massive tetrahedrite and boulangerite from Type II veins returned 78.6 g/t gold and 19,334 g/t silver.
3) Type III veins are characterized by medium- to low-grade argentiferous and auriferous, widely spaced clay and scorodite altered quartz-filled fractures hosting disseminated galena, tetrahedrite and sphalerite. The P-2B occurrence hosts Type III veins. Very little work has occurred on Type III veins, and as such there is little information on their overall abundance and grade.
PLATA – KENO HILL SIMILARITIES
The stratigraphic and structural settings of Plata and the Keno Hill district are remarkably similar, as is the mineralization. Both districts are hosted within Selwyn basin stratigraphy adjacent to Early Cretaceous thrust faults and have large Mayo suite intrusions within 10 km of mineralization. Early gold-bearing veins reported at Keno Hill closely resemble Type II veins identified at Plata. In both districts, these fault veins are dominated by quartz gangue and contain elevated arsenic and antimony. The main silver mineralization at Keno Hill occurs in veins hosted within extensional fault systems. These veins are characterized by minerals containing iron, manganese, sulphur, antimony, lead, zinc, cadmium and silver in a gangue of siderite. The Type I veins at Plata occur in extensional faults that host silver, lead and zinc mineralization associated with elevated antimony, sulphur and cadmium. At both districts, faults and associated veins hosting higher-grade silver mineralization cross-cut earlier gold-enriched mineralization.
Figure 3: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c7e5c98c-575d-4f14-8a57-c7151be2821e
All analyses of rocks samples from the 2021 Plata program were performed by ALS Minerals with sample preparation in Whitehorse and assays and geochemical analyses in North Vancouver. Rock samples were routinely analyzed for gold by fire assay followed by atomic absorption (Au-AA24 and 33 other elements by four acid digestion with inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy analysis (ME-ICP61). Samples that exceeded the detection limits of the routine methods were assayed for silver, lead and zinc by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (Ag/Pb/Zn - OG62) and samples that exceeded the detection limits for gold by gravimetric analysis (Au-GRA22).
Technical information in this news release has been approved by Heather Burrell, P.Geo., a senior geologist with Archer, Cathro & Associates (1981) Limited and qualified person for the purpose of National Instrument 43-101.
For more information, please visit our website above, or contact: Ms. Christina Slater at cslater@honeybadgersilver.com.
Notes:
1) Cathro, R.C., 2006, Great Mining Camps of Canada 1. The History and Geology of the Keno Hill Silver Camp, Yukon Territory; Geoscience Canada, Vol.33, No.3, pp103-134.
About Honey Badger Silver Inc.
Honey Badger Silver is a Canadian Silver company based in Toronto, Ontario focused on the acquisition, development and integration of accretive transactions of silver ounces. The company is led by a highly experienced leadership team with a track record of value creation backed by a skilled technical team. With a dominant land position in Ontario’s historic Thunder Bay Silver District and advanced projects in the southeast and south-central Yukon including the Plata property 180 kms to the east of the Keno Hill silver district, Honey Badger Silver is positioning to be a top-tier silver company.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information
This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation that is based on expectations, estimates, projections and interpretations as at the date of this news release. The information in this news release and any other information herein that is not a historical fact may be "forward-looking information".
Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, interpretations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "interpreted", "management's view", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking information and are intended to identify forward-looking information.
This forward-looking information is based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time such assumptions and estimates were made, and involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Honey Badger Silver to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, but are not limited to, volatility in the trading price of common shares of the Company; risks relating to the ability of the Company to obtain required approvals, complete definitive documentation; ability of the Company to complete further exploration activities; the results of exploration activities; capital and operating costs varying significantly from estimates; delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, environmental or other project approvals; uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future; changes in equity markets; inflation; fluctuations in commodity prices; delays in the development of projects; other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry; and those risks set out in the Company's public documents filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) under Honey Badger Silver's issuer profile.
Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed timeframes or at all. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.
