Canadian explorer Aftermath Silver (TSXV: AAG) said drilling at its Berenguela silver-copper-manganese deposit in Peru intersected shallow mineralization, paving the way for an updated resource estimate.Hole AFD129 cut 12.35 metres of 302 grams per tonne silver, 0.66% copper and 10.64% manganese from 2.4 metres downhole, Aftermath said Monday in a statement as it disclosed 16 assays.Hole AFD130, meanwhile, intercepted 35.55 metres of 322 grams silver, 0.58% copper and 6.88% manganese from surface. This included 7.1 metres at 1,174 grams silver, 0.8% copper and 11.14% manganese from 24.4 metres downhole.Vancouver-based Aftermath is in the second stage of an 82-hole, 5,200-metre program of diamond core drilling at Berenguela. Assay results for the final 11 holes will be released shortly, the company said. “Our latest round of results have expanded the known mineralization into areas outside of the previous resource model in the central north area,” CEO Ralph Rushton said in the statement.“We also cut strong manganese mineralization in the far eastern area of the resource where there has been little previous drilling. We’ll be incorporating the latest results into a revised mineral resource estimate which is currently underway.” Strike extendedAftermath shares jumped 8% to C$0.54 in Monday afternoon trading in Toronto. That gave the company a market capitalization of about C$163 million ($119 million).Historical mapping and resource modelling shows that the mineralization extends for about 1,300 metres along strike, Aftermath said. The recent drilling has extended the strike length to at least 1,550 metres with a maximum width of 400 metres in the project’s central part, 250 metres in the western part and 50 metres in the faulted section between the western and central parts.Drilling was carried out at a high angle to mineralization controls, Aftermath said. Intersections are assumed to equate to true thickness.Berenguela hosts a potentially open-pittable silver-copper-manganese resource in southern Peru’s Puno province. Aftermath’s goal is to produce silver, copper metal and a commercial battery-grade or fertilizer-grade manganese product.Aftermath has paid $9.65 million and $3 million in shares so far to acquire all of the project through a 2020 agreement with SSR Mining (TSX,
Nasdaq: SSRM). In 2021, EMX Royalty (TSX, NYSE-A: EMX) acquired SSR Mining’s rights to option agreement, so all the payments and a sliding-scale net smelter return royalty ranging from 1% to 1.25% go to EMX Royalty.Berenguela is located about 6 km from road, rail and power lines and four hours from the city of Arequipa by sealed road. The railway is connected to the port of Matarani.
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