More high-grade silver for Excellon

Excellon Resources’ (EXN-T) Platosa mine in central Mexico is already producing silver, zinc and lead from high-grade mantos, but its recent drill program points to the possibility of significant tonnage being added to its mine plan.

The latest results from the project, which sits in central Mexico roughly 1,000 km north of Mexico City, come from assays on 13 diamond drill holes.

Seven of those holes came from what the company calls the NE-1 and 623 Manto areas.

The best hole came from an area between the two mantos on the downthrown side of a major northwest- trending fault. The hole hit 4 metres of massive sulphides grading 1,032 grams silver per tonne, 7.63% lead and 17.89% zinc.

Another hole in the same area intersected 6.3 metres of 618 grams silver, 22.32% lead and 0.67% zinc.

Excellon is especially bullish on those results because they reverse a previous drilling trend in the zone which only hit lower-grade breccias sulphides. The area is still open to the east.

The other six holes came from the better defined 6A/6B Manto. Drilling there was done to continue tracing and infilling the extension, the company says.

Highlights included 3.7 metres grading 931 grams silver, 9.36% lead and 6.54% zinc; 1.37 metres grading 1,180 grams silver, 18.30% lead and 21.10% zinc.

Mineralization is still open to the northwest and the zone is accessible from mine infrastructure that is already on the site.

Excellon turned out 1.2 million oz. silver, 5.9 million lbs. lead and 4.7 million lbs. zinc in 2009 from Platosa.

But with the project encompassing so much under-explored and highly prospective land, John Sullivan, Excellon’s vice-president of exploration, says that the company is striking a balance between extending producing zones and finding zones farther afield.

“Our plan is to continue adding to near-mine mineralization while testing the various recently developed targets for both additional manto sulphides and a large-tonnage proximal deposit,” Sullivan said in a statement.

The recent drilling extended the 6A/6B Manto area over 130 metres northwest from the closest block that made it into its most recent resource estimate — which was released in December 2009.

That updated resource estimate put 579,000 tonnes in the indicated category grading 909 grams silver, 9.09% lead and 10.51% zinc. The inferred category came in at 160,000 tonnes grading 731 grams silver, 7.44% lead and 7.57% zinc.

In Toronto on Sept. 8 — the day the news was released — the company’s shares were up 3% or 2¢ to 78¢ on 574,000 shares traded.