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

Metallic Minerals Corp. Jan. 10 announced the results from its 2023 exploration campaign at the company's Keno Silver project in Yukon, Canada, with all its holes encountering high-grade silver, lead, zinc, and significant gold mineralization.

Consisting of 171 square kilometers (66 square miles) within the historic Keno Hill Silver District, Metallic Minerals holds 100% of this promising target that lies adjacent to Hecla Mining Company's Keno Hill silver mine.

Covering the eastern portion of the district, along with sections on the western and southern sides, Metallic Minerals' land package hosted eight of the 35 historical silver mines that returned some of the highest grades in the district – with five averaging production grades above 5,000 grams per metric ton silver.

The 2023 exploration program comprised 1,112 meters in four diamond drill holes focused on expanding the Formo target in the West Keno area.

Highlights from drilling at Formo in 2022 included:

• 0.5 meters averaging 1,139 grams per metric ton silver, 14.8% zinc, and 18.3% lead in hole FOR22-01.

• 1.63 meters averaging 1,050 g/t silver, 9.45% zinc, and 4.21% lead in hole FOR22-03.

• 0.64 meters averaging 1,358 g/t silver, 16.4% zinc, and 4.16% lead in hole FOR22-04.

"The Formo target is an exciting, advanced exploration stage 'resource-ready' target with significant room to grow featuring both high-grade and bulk mineable widths that make it amenable to lower-cost mining methods," said Metallic Minerals President Scott Petsel. "The Formo target is ideally located near infrastructure as it is adjacent to the Silver Trail highway (Highway 11) and power lines that feed the central Keno Hill mill. It also directly adjoins Hecla's Keno Hill property, where Hecla is actively mining the nearby Bermingham mine."

Drilling last year aimed at Formo was intended at establishing an inaugural NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate which the company originally targeted for the fourth quarter of 2023 but has not yet been released. However, given the promising numbers from the recent results, a maiden resource estimate may be just around the corner.

Although four holes were drilled, each returned significant grades of silver, zinc, and lead, as well as one intercept returning elevated values of gold.

Hole FOR23-001 was initially drilled 0.69 meters averaging 3.6 g/t silver and 6.2 g/t gold from a depth of 148.74 meters. A deeper intercept cut 18.05 meters averaging 121.4 g/t silver, 0.05 g/t gold, 1.22% lead, and 2.06% zinc from 196.95 meters, and included a smaller subsection of 1.95 meters averaging 300.3 g/t silver, 0.07 g/t gold, 2.71% lead, and 3.74 zinc.

A few meters below that, FOR23-001 encountered 5.6 meters averaging 241 g/t silver, 0.1 g/t gold, 2.41% lead, and 4.43% zinc from 208.4 meters, with its own subsection cutting 2.8 meters averaging 367.57 g/t silver, 0.18 g/t gold, 4.02% lead, and 5.37% zinc.

FOR23-002 returned 1.05 meters averaging 3.5 g/t silver and 0.79 g/t gold from 172.3 meters, with another intercept cutting three meters averaging 51.9 g/t silver, 0.38 g/t gold, 0.35% lead, and 1.07% zinc from 218 meters, including one meter of 137 g/t silver, 0.96% lead, and 3.08% zinc.

FOR23-004 returned 2.46 meters averaging 43.7 g/t silver, 0.11 g/t gold, 0.33% lead, and 0.43% zinc from 122 meters, but continued to contact various levels of silver, lead, and zinc. This included two other intervals of 0.6 meters averaging 154 g/t silver, 0.09 g/t gold, 1.67% lead, and 2.14% zinc from 153.5 meters; and 5.5 meters averaging 61.2 g/t silver, 0.28% lead, and 0.18% zinc from 177.5 meters.

Hole 004 ended off with 1.76 meters averaging 130 g/t silver, 0.46% lead, and 0.21% zinc from a depth of 179 meters, with a final 0.7-meter section cutting 5.6 g/t silver and 0.97 g/t gold.

Saving the best for last, Metallic Minerals says FOR23-003 represents one of the best intercepts to date for its Keno Silver project, returning 46.05 meters averaging 99.1 g/t silver, 0.52 g/t gold, 0.65% lead, and 2.62% zinc from a depth of 239.35 meters.

However, as the company dug down, the numbers climbed up.

Within that first intercept, smaller subsections returned 23.7 meters averaging 176 g/t silver, 1 g/t gold, 1.13% lead, and 4.67% zinc from 239.4 meters, including 5.5 meters averaging 46.6 g/t silver, 4.07 g/t gold, 0.49% lead, and 0.60% zinc. Just below that, 7.85 meters averaging 392.4 g/t silver, 0.13 g/t gold, 2.06% lead, and 11.68% zinc from a depth of 255.8 meters.

Metallic Minerals Corp.

Click image for larger map from the 2022 program at Formo.

Within the next twenty meters or so, Metallic Minerals reported 3.3 meters averaging 562.4 g/t silver, 0.2 g/t gold, 2.35% lead, and 20.3% zinc from 260.4 meters, including 0.75 meters averaging 994 g/t silver, 0.03 g/t gold, 3.01% lead, and 7.36% zinc; 1.6 meters averaging 416 g/t silver, 0.39 g/t gold, 2.64% lead, and 32.32% zinc from 262.1 meters; and two meters averaging 302.55 g/t silver, 0.03 g/t gold, 1.07% lead, and 4.07% zinc from 284 meters.

"We are excited to be able to include these new drill results in our upcoming inaugural resource for the Keno Silver project as these results at Formo continue to demonstrate our ability to build a significant resource base for the project," said Petsel. "The resource estimate is expected to be complete in Q1 2024."