Silver Mines Ltd (ASX:SVL, OTC:SLVMF) has updated mineral resource estimate (MRE) and ore reserve estimate for the Bowdens Silver Deposit in central New South Wales.
Silver Mines managing director Jo Battershill said: “It is very pleasing to see the increase to the Bowdens ore reserve. Our focus has been to improve both the confidence in our understanding of the Bowdens deposit and increase our shareholder's exposure to silver.”
Ore reserve estimate
The Bowdens silver ore reserve is estimated at 32.8 million tonnes at 68 g/t silver, 0.38% zinc and 0.29% lead, for a 10% increase to the ore tonnes relative to the 2018 estimate with a A$30 per ton cut off.
The contained silver in reserves has increased by 7.5% to 71.7 million ounces and silver is now forecast to contribute more than 85% of the revenue in the mine plan, up from around 70% in the 2018 ore reserves estimate.
“With a reserve estimate of almost 72 million ounces of silver, which is estimated to drive more than 85% of the project's forecast revenue, Silver Mines is well positioned to benefit from the strong uplift in industrial silver demand that has seen very large deficits build over the last several years," Battershill added.
“In addition, the historical linkage to the gold price continues to provide ongoing support to silver."
The overall resource to reserve conversion of silver from the higher confidence measured and indicated categories has increased to 44% (up from 39%).
Key changes to the reserves were derived from increased metallurgical recoveries from a simplified processing flowsheet; and an improved mine design with a smaller development footprint and reduced overall disturbance.
Silver Mines notes that the reserves also contain 123.3 kilo-tonnes of zinc and 95.6 kilo-tonnes of lead in contained metal.
Mineral resource estimate
The December 2024 MRE (at a 30g/t silver-equivalent cut-off) update reflects additional drilling including a further 24,140 assays, more accurate geological domaining, improved metallurgical recoveries from test work and changes to metal pricing assumptions.
To summarise, the Bowdens measured and indicated resources have seen the following key changes:
- Overall tonnes down 8.9% from 157 million tonnes to 143 million tonnes.
- Silver grade increased by 6.3%, from 33.6 g/t silver to 35.7 g/t silver.
- Contained silver marginally lower from 169.8 million ounces to 164 million ounces (down 3.4%).
- Measured and indicated now accounts for 80% of tonnes and 92% of contained silver ounces.
This updated MRE underpins the increase to the reserves as detailed above.
Additionally, a gold dominant portion, at 0.2g/t gold, forms a subset to the overall Bowdens MRE — containing 19.4 million tonnes at 0.32 g/t gold for 201,570 ounces. Yet further work is needed to better refine gold domains in future resource estimates.
A compelling opportunity
“The release of the mineral resource and ore reserve estimates and the results from the optimisation study demonstrate that the Bowdens Silver Project is one of the most advanced silver development projects on the ASX,” Battershill said.
“When combined with the project's tier one jurisdiction, we believe Silver Mines represents a compelling opportunity within the global silver sector."