First Two Core Holes Completed At Philadelphia Gold Project

VANCOUVER – Arizona Silver Exploration Inc. has completed the first two core holes at the Philadelphia project, Mohave County, Arizona.  The first hole is in the laboratory with the second hole to be submitted Friday.

Greg Hahn, VP-Exploration, said, “From a visual perspective the new drilling is proceeding as anticipated. Intercepts are close to modeled depths and quartz vein breccia thicknesses remain strong.  The presence of visible gold in core in the hanging wall vein is encouraging but must be regarded with caution as to grade. That said, the model of the gold system in the “boiling zone” is holding up and as such I expect the zone will continue deeper.”

Current drilling is at the north end of the Perry patented claim testing down dip of three previously drilled reverse circulation drill holes, PRC21-81 thru PRC21-83. The objective of the drilling is twofold: firstly, to determine the grade continuity down dip of previous mineralization, and secondly to recover drill core to compare with RC cuttings.

Earlier holes, PRC21-81 thru PRC21-83 reported two vein breccias separated by a diagnostic rhyolite dike that hosts quartz stockwork veining. The upper (hanging wall) quartz vein breccia is higher grade than the lower (footwall) calcite-cemented vein breccia. The thickness and grade of the entire mineralized package was increasing with depth. The upper vein breccia was up to 3 meters thick at 16.9 grams per tonne (gpt) gold and 51.15 gpt silver. Stockwork mineralization up to 33.5 meters drill thickness was intersected in the mineralized rhyolite dike between the upper and lower vein breccias. The lower vein was characterized by black carbonate-cemented quartz vein and rhyolite fragments.

Current holes PC22-86 and PC22-87 intersected upper and lower vein breccia intercepts as predicted, 30 meters and 60 meters respectively below the earlier drill intercepts. The geology is continuous in both core holes, with the two vein breccias separated by quartz stockwork rhyolite.

In holes PC22-86 and PC22-87 the upper vein breccia carries fine-grained visible gold. The vein breccia is characterized by yellow or green chalcedonic to crustiform quartz, occasionally banded, with clasts of vein and rhyolite within the vein breccia. The thickness of the upper vein breccia is 5.91 meters in the shallower hole, PC22-86 and 3.87 meters in the second hole, PC22-87. Estimated true thickness of the upper vein breccia in the two holes is 4.85 meters and 2.74 meters respectively.

In holes PC21-86 and PC21-87 the lower vein breccia is 10.33 meters thick and 12.71 meters thick respectively. Estimated true thickness of the vein breccia is 8.5 meters and 9 meters respectively. Quartz in the lower vein is mostly white to gray, not green to yellow as in the upper vein breccia, and locally contains cockade and banded textures. The vein textures suggest the new drill hole intercepts are below the upper level of “boiling” as anticipated.  

In the new drilling, the quartz stockwork rhyolite zone between the two vein breccias is 29 meters thick and 39.4 meters thick respectively. The zone is getting both thicker and stronger with depth. Some yellow and green quartz is evident in the stockwork zone reflecting a mixture of the quartz present in both the upper and lower vein breccias. Overall thickness of the strongly mineralized interval in the two holes is 45.27 meters, and 56.0 meters respectively. Estimated true thicknesses are 32.0 meters and 45.87 meters.  

Two more drill holes are planned to follow the zone further down dip some 30 meters and 60 meters below PC21-87. Drilling is underway on hole PC21-88.