Some of the best resource discoveries have occurred in projects that have seen mining and exploration activity before. Great Bear’s Dixie Project had seen exploration and drilling activity a few decades ago, but it took a new set of eyes and a different interpretation of the geology to uncover the treasures ‘hidden in plain sight’ at Dixie. A similar story unfolded at Barrick Gold’s Goldstrike Discovery in Nevada’s Carlin Trend when Newmont Mining passed on purchasing the 6,900 acre money-losing mine in the mid-1980s. Barrick’s first deep hole drilled at Goldstrike in 1987 changed everything, and Goldstrike became one of the richest gold mines in history and a cash cow for Barrick.
A similar story could be unfolding at Summa Silver’s Mogollon Project in New Mexico. Summa Silver (CSE:SSVR, OTC:SSVRF) optioned Mogollon from Allegiant Gold in 2020 after Summa CEO Galen McNamara identified Mogollon as a dormant southwestern US gold/silver project that warranted a new look and modern exploration techniques. Allegiant has focused on its Nevada projects since Mogollon had become a non-core asset that was collecting dust in Allegiant’s project portfolio.
Summa launched its maiden drill program at Mogollon in November 2021 and published a news release on December 14th highlighting a 50 meter zone of epithermal-related veining and brecciation with locally high concentrations of silver-bearing sulfides in the first hole into the Main Vein Zone (Queen Vein):
A few holes into Summa’s maiden drill program at Mogollon, McNamara liked what he was seeing. So much so that it was decided to raise more money in order to expand the drill program and ensure that Summa would be well funded for the remainder of 2022. Billionaire resource investor Eric Sprott and senior silver producer First Majestic (NYSE:AG) were quick to sign up to hand more money to Summa.
Summa plans at least 25,000 meters of drilling at Mogollon in 2022 with the goal of producing a maiden resource estimate by the end of the year. The focus of the ongoing drill program is testing un-mined extensions of the Consolidated Mine, centered on the north-trending, epithermal-related Queen Vein. Holes on 50-meter centers are designed to systematically test the lateral and vertical continuity of mineralization over a strike-length of approximately 500 meters and near-vertical, down-dip extent of over 250 meters beginning at approximately 130 meters below surface.
As noted in the above slide from the Summa Silver presentation, the average grade (506 g/t silver-equivalent) and thickness (12 meters average length) of historic drilling at the Main Queen Vein is impressive. Assuming a 500 meters x 300 meters target area, it’s not difficult to see how Summa will be able to build ounces quickly at Mogollon.
On January 20th, 2022 Summa published a news release highlighting widespread high-grade gold/silver rock samples over a 3.5 kilometer x 3.5 kilometer wide area.
At least six vein zones at Mogollon will be drill tested in 2022, with the bulk of the drilling focused on the Fanney Vein, Queen Vein, and Last Chance Vein.
These vein zones include:
- Fanney Vein: Channel and grab samples collected systematically along a 1.2 km strike length of locally exposed Fanney Vein system as well as from dumps near the historic Fanney mine (e.g., 2,450 g/t Ag with 32.8 g/t Au) confirm the high-grade silver and gold contents. Although the site of significant but unknown total amounts of historic mining, the Fanney Vein remains relatively underexplored and there is good potential for the discovery of un-mined ore shoots.
- Queen Vein: The north-trending Queen vein system has been mapped with a strike-length of at least 2.8 km. Selective and representative grab samples were collected from along the Queen vein (Figure 1) covering a distance of over 1.2 km. High-grade results (e.g., 914 g/t Ag with 30.8 g/t Au and 756 g/t Ag with 21.6 g/t Au) confirm the significant potential of the underexplored Queen vein system.
- Last Chance Vein: Rock samples were collected over 1.2 km of strike length along the east-west striking Last Chance vein system. Samples returned grades of up to 376 g/t Ag with 13.4 g/t Au from outcropping veins and support the potential for discovery of un-mined ore shoots.
- Pacific Vein: The Pacific vein has been traced for over 500 meters on the property and selective sampling of the veins yielded high-grade results such as 255 g/t Ag with 7.2 g/t Au. The north-trending Pacific vein is approximately 1.7 km west of the parallel Queen vein and has never been drill tested.
- Great Western Vein: The north to northeast-trending Great Western Vein system has been traced for up to 1.6 km on the property. Grades of up to 244 g/t Ag with 12.1 g/t Au were returned from rock-chip samples from north-striking veins to the south and up to 102 g/t Ag with 5.0 g/t Au from northeast-striking veins to the north. This vein has never been drill tested.
- Johnson Trilby Veins: The east-west trending Johnson Trilby veins have been mapped for over 1.3 km of strike-length. Samples of outcropping veins returned high-grade results including 170 g/t Ag with 10.5 g/t Au. Besides local historic exploration pits and evidence of some mining, the prospective Johnson Trilby veins remain completely undrilled.
In addition, Summa will drill at least 25 diamond drill holes at its Hughes Property near Tonopah, Nevada in 2022. The objective is to simultaneously advance Hughes and Mogollon to maiden resource estimates by the end of 2022.
At its current US$50 million market cap, Summa Silver is well positioned to deliver upside leverage to rising gold/silver prices in 2022 as it advances towards outline total resources of more than 50,000,000 silver-equivalent ounces at Mogollon and Hughes. I used the recent dip below C$1.00 per share to add to my SSVR position.
Disclosure: Author owns SSVR.CA shares at the time of publishing and may choose to buy or sell at any time without notice.
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