BKB upgrades silver grades from US project - JORC resource due this quarter
Our 2025 Small Cap Pick of the Year Black Bear Minerals (ASX: BKB | OTCQX: BKBMF) just released another batch of results from re-assayed old drillcore at its project in Texas, USA.
BKB is currently re-assaying decades of old drill core that form the basis for its 17.6Moz @ 289g/t silver foreign (non-JORC) resource estimate.
By re-assaying the old core, BKB is working toward a maiden JORC resource for the project (due this quarter).
At the moment here is how it looks for BKB’s project:
(source)
Hopefully more of that red and yellow come together when BKB puts out its maiden JORC resource number…
We also noticed BKB’s mapped multiple undrilled targets surrounding the foreign resource - so beyond the red area in the image above, drilling on the targets from the image below could also add to whatever resource BKB produces for its project.
(source)
Coming back to the results announced today.
The positive from all the re-assayed data is that BKB keeps upgrading the silver results (relative to what was reported on those holes in the past).
For example the 7.9m at 377g/t silver hit from today’s announcement was a 51% upgrade on the original assay date.
Another positive is that BKB also has gold in its assay results.
This round of results had one hit with 1.2m at 1.9g/t gold and another with 0.6m at 4.1g/t gold.
Gold over 1g/t as a potential credit alongside the silver is more than a nice to have - especially when gold is trading at ~US$4,000 per ounce.
It should also mean that when BKB is putting together is JORC resource estimate, it could include the gold credits and report a “Silver equivalent” number that is a lot bigger than the current resource.
What's next for BKB?
🔄 Gold project in Nevada
Next we want to see BKB deliver:
- ✅ COMPLETED: Mining study phases on a heap-leach development
- ✅ COMPLETED: Scoping study
- 🔲 DUE NEXT: Metallurgical testwork
- 🔲 DUE AFTER: Revised Scoping Study on the full 1.2M ounce shallow resource estimate
- 🔲 DUE LATER: Pre-Feasibility Study
🔄 Silver project in Texas, USA
Over the next 6 months the main things we want to see are the following:
- 🔄 Rapid restart study (CAPEX estimate)
- 🔄 Drill program - 11 diamond holes
- 🔄 Multi-element gold/zinc/lead assays
- 🔲 Maiden JORC resource
- 🔲 Scoping Study starts
- 🔲 Restart Final Investment Decision (FID)
