Silver Identified At The Broken Hill & Cannington Silver-Lead-Zince Mines

HALIFAX, NS – Zephyr Minerals Ltd. has discovered the silver in historic drill holes GC-8 and GC-9 is hosted by the same rare silver mineral that is host to the silver at the Broken Hill and Cannington silver-lead-zinc mines in Australia, as well as a silver enriched variant.

Petrographic studies coupled with electron microprobe analyses has been completed on silver-lead-zinc mineralization from the massive sulfide zone along the Dawson-Green Mountain (DGM) trend by Dr. Paul Spry, Economic Geology professor at the University of Iowa and Zephyr’s technical advisor. Dr. Spry is a world-renowned expert on Broken Hill Type (BHT), silver-lead-zinc deposits. Results of these studies show the DGM trend is dominated by the metallic minerals sphalerite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena, magnetic pyrrhotite, magnetite, and gahnite. The magnetic anomaly associated with the DGM trend is related to the presence of magnetite and magnetic pyrrhotite. At the Cannington mine in Australia (a BHT deposit) the deposit’s magnetic signature is primarily due to the presence of magnetite and minor pyrrhotite in the silver-lead-zinc mineralization.

Electron microprobe analyses of historic (US Borax, 1981), drill core from holes GC-8 and GC-9 has demonstrated that the majority of the silver in the El Plomo section of the DGM trend is found in a recently named new mineral argentotetrahedrite (Ag6(Cu4Fe2)Sb4S12S). Argentotetrahedrite contains up to 34 weight percent silver. In addition, minor amounts of silver are hosted in tetrahedrite with up to 4 weight percent silver and galena with up to 0.32 weight percent silver. At the Broken Hill and Cannington mines in Australia, the main silver mineral is freibergite ((Ag,Cu,Fe)12(Sb,As)4S13). Argentotetrahedrite is a subgroup of the silver sulfosalt mineral freibergite. The presence of the high silver mineral, argentotetrahedrite versus freibergite suggests a BHT discovery at El Plomo could potentially have a higher silver-lead ratio than at Cannington which stood at 44 g/t silver per 1% lead.

Loren Komperdo, President & CEO said, “I am very pleased to find the majority of the silver is hosted in the mineral argentotetrahedrite which is a freibergite variant with extra silver. These are both rare silver minerals and it bodes well that the silver at Zephyr’s El Plomo section is hosted in the same minerals as found in Broken Hill and Cannington”.