North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Dolly Varden Silver Corp. Oct. 30 announced that Hecla Mining Company is investing C$10 million (US$7.2 million) in the Northern British Columbia-focused precious metals exploration company.

Hecla, which has long held a stake in Dolly Varden, has agreed to acquire 15.38 million shares of the company at C65 cents each. As a result, Hecla's will own a 15.7% interest in Dolly Varden, a significant increase from its prior 10.6% interest.

In connection with the Hecla investment, Dolly Varden has agreed to not complete any further debt or equity financings for the remainder of 2023. Dolly Varden has also agreed not to raise more than C$15 million (US$10.8 million) or complete any financings at a price of less than C65 cents per share prior to Sept. 1, 2024.

Dolly Varden has also agreed to apply C$6 million of the proceeds from the financing for exploration and resource expansion at its Kitsault Valley gold-silver project in Northern BC. The balance is to be used for working capital and general and administrative expenses.

Located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of Stewart, BC, the 63-square-mile (163 square kilometers) Kitsault Valley project is an amalgamation of Dolly Varden's namesake property and the adjacent Homestake Ridge gold-silver property acquired from Fury Gold Mines Ltd.

Four deposits associated with past producing mines at Dolly Varden – Torbrit, Dolly Varden, Wolf, and North Star – host 3.42 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 299.8 grams per metric ton (32.93 million oz) silver; plus 1.29 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 277 g/t (11.45 million oz) silver.

About 5.5 kilometers (3.5 miles) northwest of the Dolly Varden deposits, three deposits at Homestake Ridge host 736,000 metric tons of indicated resource averaging 7.02 g/t (165,993 oz) gold and 74.8 g/t (1.8 million oz) silver; plus 5.55 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 4.58 g/t (816,719 oz) gold and 100 g/t (17.8 million oz) silver.

Dolly Varden is in the midst of a 50,000-meter drill program focused on resource expansion targets on both properties and the Kitsault Valley trend that links them.

"Hecla's support for Dolly Varden Silver's high-grade Kitsault Valley Project in BC's prolific Golden Triangle is validated with today's financing news," Dolly Varden Silver CEO Shawn Khunkhun said on Oct. 30. "Hecla is the world's fastest growing established silver producer, the largest in the US and soon to be in Canada. We celebrate Hecla agreeing to increase their stake in Dolly from 10% to 15% and want to extend our gratitude for their financial and technical support of the company and the project."

In addition to being a major shareholder of Dolly Varden and a supporter of its Kitsault Valley exploration, Hecla has its own silver and gold-enriched project in the area.

Dolly Varden Silver Corp.

Lying alongside the Kitsault Valley project, Hecla's 230-square-mile (596 square kilometers) property hosts potential for the discovery of epithermal silver-gold, gold-rich porphyry, and volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits.

While Hecla has not talked much publicly about its exploration at Kinskuch, the company has previously reported that it has traced silver-enriched, base metal mineralization in the Illiance Valley at Kinskuch for over three miles (4.8 kilometers). Three holes drilled at Kinskuch in 2011 cut significant silver mineralization, including a 2.8-meter interval averaging 318 g/t silver, 0.40 g/t gold, 6.5% zinc, and 2.2% lead.

Hecla said exploration at Kinskuch will focus on advancing multiple target areas on the property through detailed mapping, sampling, geophysics, and drilling.

Author Bio

Shane Lasley, Publisher

Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.

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