On May 21, 2024 Dolly Varden Silver (TSXV:DV) (OTC:DOLLF) announced that its 2024 Exploration Drill Program has started at its 100% owned Kitsault Valley Project in BC’s Golden Triangle.
“Exploration Drill Programs typically involve testing a theory,” Rob van Egmond, V.P of Exploration for DV Silver told Guy Bennett, the CEO of Global Stocks News (GSN). “In our case, we are trying to verify the presence of mineralised structures underneath the sedimentary cap.”
Summer Drill Program Key Highlights:
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Three drill rigs mobilising
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Initial 25,000 meters diamond drilling planned
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Focus on Homestake Silver and Wolf Deposits
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Low snow packs allow for earlier than usual start in May
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Extensive Exploration Drill Program
Three drill rigs have been mobilized and are testing exploration targets at
1. Moose Vein.
2. Chance Vein
3. North Star Deposit
Objectives of the initial targets include testing for new discoveries and following up from high-grade silver mineralization encountered in the 2023 drilling program.
“Our 25,000-meter program is the earliest startup for of any season for Dolly Varden Silver and we look forward to building on resource expansion and high-grade mineralization discovered during the 2023 program,” stated Shawn Khunkhun, CEO of Dolly Varden Silver. “We are excited to continue to grow the premier advanced silver project in Canada, backed by our strong corporate, institutional and strategic investors.”
Moose Vein
“A kilometer and a half north of Wolf is the Moose Vein,” van Egmond told GSN. “We believe it projects down underneath the sedimentary cap that masks the mineralization.”
“We were going to take that moderate hit from last year – about 712 grams/tonne silver over a meter – and we’re doing to drill towards the southwest at the same orientation as the plunge on Wolf Vein.”
Chance Vein
“The Chance Vein is something we drilled a few years ago,” van Egmond told GSN. “At that time, we had an incomplete understanding of the plunged geometries. With the geometry defined, it’s possible to follow the high-grade mineralization down.”
“At Chance we had some good intercepts, 400 grams/tonne silver over a 24-meter intercept. But when we dropped below it, we didn’t find anything. We know a lot more about the structure now. We’re applying this newly gained knowledge of the geometry to test some old intercepts.”
“The first hole at the Chance Vein will test the interpreted down plunge projection of previously released drill hole DV19-173, that intersected 488 g/t Ag over 26.50 meters including 1,044 g/t Ag over 5.60 meters (from previous release; August 7, 2019),” confirms DV.
North Star Deposit Step Out
“The third drill is at Northstar,” van Egmond told GSN. “It’s quite near the main resource. Last year we drilled two holes to get a better intercept on that layer. We wanted to design a hole that cut across everything at a perpendicular angle.”
“We had good intercepts on the western part. If that layer has a paleo-geographic dip filled with a similar style of mineralization as Torbrit, the potential for discovery at North Star is significant.”
“Follow-up drilling will target the extension of previously released drill hole DV23-358 from North Star that intersected 345 g/t Ag over 7.45m and included 1,510 g/t Ag over 0.58 meters (from previous release; February 12, 2024),” confirms DV.
“The 2024 summer drill program will be split approximately 50/50 between the Dolly Varden Property and the Homestake Ridge Property,” states DV, “with an overall project split of 1/3 to Homestake Silver deposit area, 1/3 to Wolf deposit area and 1/3 to project wide exploration targets with new discovery potential.”
“Throughout the summer we are going to release the drill results in batches,” van Egmond told GSN, “We’ll organise it by drill rig location. We’ll group the Wolf holes together, and the Homestake holes together, and so on.”
“The first drill results are scheduled to be released by the end of June,” van Egmond continued. “We hope to release drill results once a month. But that will depend how busy the labs are. There as some big drill programs going on in the Golden Triangle. It’s normal for the turn-around time at the labs to stretch as the summer goes on.”
“Primary silver mines are rare,” Khunkhun told GSN. “They only represent about 28% of the silver market. We’re located in Canada, that has stable mining laws. We are up North in British Columbia where there are not a lot of tourists. We’ve demonstrated size through acquisition and discoveries.”
“This has led to a lot of notable shareholders,” continued Khunkhun. “Including Hecla, Eric Sprott and institutions like Fidelity.”
On November 2, 2023 Dolly Varden Silver announced that it has closed a deal where Hecla Canada invested $10 million in DV Silver, raising its stake in DV Silver from 10.6% to 15.7%.
Hecla Mining has a market cap of USD $3.52 billion and trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). It is on track to produce 17 million ounces of silver in 2024.
“Hecla’s increased ownership stake is a benefit to us,” Khunkhun told GSN. “Hecla has demonstrated it is a sticky shareholder. They’re looking to expand their North American silver portfolio.”
“In a note published Tuesday, commodity analysts at TD Securities reiterated their bullish outlook for silver as physical demand continues to outstrip supply,” reported Kitco News on May 21, 2024. “In his latest note, Daniel Ghali, senior commodity strategist at the Canadian Bank, said he is keeping an eye on the white metal’s all-time highs.”
“The last time silver prices broke through $30/oz, it traded to $50/oz in less than ten weeks,” Ghali wrote.
“Dolly Varden is trading at about $1 an ounce in the ground,” KhunKhun told GSN. “The average company trades about $4 an ounce in the ground. If we continue to find more silver for pennies-an-ounce in the ground, and the price of silver continues to go up, there is a strong likelihood that we are going to be revalued.”
Rob van Egmond, P.Geo., Vice-President Exploration for Dolly Varden Silver, the “Qualified Person” as defined by NI43-101 has reviewed, validated and approved the scientific and technical information contained in this GSN release.
Disclaimer: Dolly Varden Silver paid GSN CND $1,500 for the research, creation and dissemination of this content.
Contact: guy.bennett@globalstocksnews.com