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Located in southern Chihuahua State in Mexico, the Parral Project comprises four separate properties in the Parral mining district where more than 200 million ounces of silver were produced during three centuries of intermittent mining. The Veta Colorada, La Palmilla and San Patricio properties lie less than 10 kilometers northwest of the city of Parral, while the large Chilicote claim group was staked a short distance east of the city.
The Veta Colorada property covers a major portion of a northerly trending, silicified fault breccia that affects Tertiary volcanic rocks, has a strike length of more than 10 kilometers and dips moderately to the east. Underground workings and remaining silver resources of two of the three historic mines that exploited the Veta Colorada vein structure lie within the property’s limits. It is estimated that these mines together produced more than 78 million ounces of silver. The productive ore bodies have strike lengths of about 500 meters, dip extents that reach 500 meters or greater and horizontal thicknesses that range from a few meters up to a maximum of 35 meters, as seen in the Sierra Plata mine. Surface diamond drilling done by the precursor company to Grupo Mexico S.A. de C.V. prior to Silver Standard acquiring the property determined that excellent potential exists for a similar body of mineralization being hosted by the fault breccia north of the underground workings of the Sierra Plata mine. Three boreholes drilled by Silver Standard in early 2006 confirmed the presence of this body of partially oxidized silver mineralization.
On the La Palmilla property, located a few kilometers south of the Veta Colorada mines, underground mining during the early 1900’s was done along three or four northerly trending, pinch-and-swell epithermal quartz veins that have strike lengths of 50 to 150 meters and average thickness of about one meter. The veins are hosted by porphyritic andesites of Tertiary age. The bulk of historical silver production from the property came from a subvertical quartz lode only 150 meters in length, 70 meters wide vertically, and up to 30 meters thick. This lode was once of the richest ore bodies in the Parral district, reportedly producing approximately 20 million ounces of silver.
The San Patricio property lies just east of the Veta Colorada claim group and covers a northerly trending fault-controlled vein structure that dips steeply to the west. Decades ago, a vertical mining shaft of about 150 meters length was excavated to access the vein, but only a minimal amount of development work was completed along the vein. Silver Standard’s geologists have undertaken surface and some underground sampling, confirming the presence of silver mineralization along the San Patricio structure.
Silver Standard plans to accelerate the exploration of its Parral district properties beginning in the third quarter of 2011. All available geological and exploration data for these properties will be compiled and reviewed with the intention that drilling programs will be designed and then executed in 2012. The company believes it controls a large and very prospective land package in one of Mexico’s major silver camps and will be vigorously exploring its properties in the district in 2012 with the goal of generating a development project in the near future.
