Silver Bull Significantly Increases The Size And Grade Of The Silver Resource To 167.5 Million Ounces Of Indicated Silver At A 72.5G/T Average Grade At The Sierra Mojada Project, Coahuila, Mexico.
Vancouver, British Columbia - March 18, 2013 -- Silver Bull Resources, Inc. (TSX: SVB, NYSE MKT: SVBL) ("Silver Bull") is pleased to provide the results that will be reported in the updated NI43-101 Technical Report ("the Technical Report") currently being completed by JDS Energy & Mining Inc. ("JDS") on the silver and zinc mineralization of the "Shallow Silver" and "Zinc" Zones at the Sierra Mojada Project in Coahuila, Mexico.
Highlights at various cutoff grades for the silver include;
• An Indicated silver resource of 71.9 million tonnes at an average grade of 72.5g/t silver totaling 167.5 million troy ounces of silver at a 25g/t silver cutoff grade.
• An Indicated silver resource of 40.75 million tonnes at an average grade of 102.2g/t silver totaling 134.0 million troy ounces of silver at a 45g/t silver cutoff grade.
• An Indicated silver resource of 20 million tonnes at an average grade of 147.8g/t silver totaling 94.0 million troy ounces of silver at a 80g/t silver cutoff grade.
• An Indicated zinc resource of 2.19 billion pounds of zinc at an average grade of 1.38%.
• An Inferred lead resource of 538 million pounds at an average grade of 0.34%.
• An Inferred copper resource of 126 million pounds at an average grade of 0.08%.
A summary of the mineral resource estimate for silver and zinc at various silver cutoff grades is as follows:
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Silver & Zinc Resource Inside the Lerchs-Grossman Optimized Pit
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Silver
Cut off Silver Zinc Pounds
Grade Grade Silver Grade Zinc
Category (g/t) Tonnes (g/t) (M-Oz) (%) (lbs)
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INDICATED greater 94,500,000 59.9 182.0 1.31 2,730,000,000
than 15
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greater 71,870,000 72.5 167.5 1.38 2,190,000,000
than 25
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greater 53,300,000 87.4 150.0 1.41 1,690,000,000
than 35
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greater 40,750,000 102.2 134.0 1.47 1,320,000,000
than 45
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greater 31,900,000 116.6 120.0 1.53 1,076,000,000
than 55
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greater 26,000,000 129.9 108.0 1.58 903,000,000
than 65
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greater 20,000,000 147.8 94.0 1.62 707,000,000
than 80
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greater 14,000,000 171.9 77.0 1.65 510,000,000
than 100
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Note: Recoveries of 100% were assumed for the pit optimization.
In addition to silver and zinc in the "indicated" category, an "inferred" resource of lead and copper was also estimated based on the various silver cutoff grades. The lead and copper resource is as follows
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Lead & Copper Resource Inside the Lerchs-Grossman Optimized Pit
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Silver
Cut off Lead Pounds Copper Pounds
Grade Grade Lead Grade Copper
Category (g/t) Tonnes (%) (lbs) (%) (lbs)
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INFERRED greater 94,500,000 0.3 625,000,000 0.07 145,860,000
than 15
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greater 71,870,000 0.34 538,566,000 0.08 126,721,000
than 25
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greater 53,300,000 0.39 458,312,000 0.09 105,764,000
than 35
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greater 40,750,000 0.42 377,215,000 0.11 98,794,000
than 45
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greater 31,900,000 0.45 316,610,000 0.12 84,429,000
than 55
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greater 26,000,000 0.48 274,243,000 0.13 74,274,000
than 65
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greater 20,000,000 0.51 222,513,000 0.14 61,082,000
than 80
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greater 14,000,000 0.55 169,987,000 0.16 49,450,000
than 100
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In order to establish a reasonable prospect of economic extraction in an open pit context, the reported silver resource falls within a Lerchs-Grossman Optimized pit shell that uses a silver price of US$29.20/oz, a zinc price of US$0.95 per pound, US$3.70 per pound copper, and US$1.00 per pound lead. Pit walls are set at 50 degrees overall, and mining costs were assumed to be US$1.50/tonne, G&A US$1.00/tonne and silver and zinc processing costs at US$12.00/tonne. Metal prices are based on the trailing 3 year averages for silver, zinc, copper, and lead.
Silver and zinc mineral resources were estimated by ordinary Kriging using 3-D Mintec MineSight(TM) V7 block modeling software in multiple passes using 20 meter X 10 meter X 5 meter blocks as the SMU size. The geologic wireframes were updated and a partial model technique utilized to calculate accurate volumes. Grade estimates were based on 1 meter composited assay data with search radius restricted to a 20 meter search radius when a zone dependent cap limit was reached. Blocks have been classified as indicated mineral resources.
At a 25 g/t cutoff grade for the silver, the updated resource represents a 103% increase in the open pittable resource of the Shallow Silver Zone previously reported by Silver Bull's July 2012 NI 43-101 Technical Report. Additional data added in this report includes; 10,056 meters of surface diamond drilling, 6,647.5 meters of underground diamond drilling completed for the "twinning" program of the historical long hole data set and approximately 400 new channel samples. With the success of the twinning program in showing an exceptional correlation with the long hole data set, a significant increase in the range of influence of 40,240 meters of long hole data has also been included in the resource estimation. Recent highlight intercepts from the twinning program include;
• 912g/t Silver over 17.6 Meters including 1,927g/t Silver over 3.66 Meters
• 463.55g/t Silver over 15.05 Meters including 1654.92g/t over 3.1 Meters
• 202.7g/t Silver over 42.65 Meters including 878g/t over 3.9 Meters
• 193.38g/t Silver over 43.65 Meters including 440.66g/t over 15 Meters
• 158.9g/t Silver over 30.75 Meters including 2,250g/t over 1 Meter
• 151.6g/t Silver over 57.30 Meters including 600.6g/t over 5.95 Meters
• 19.52% Zinc over 22.85 Meters including 47.59% over 4.4 Meters
• 15.65% Zinc over 43.55 Meters including 20.26% over 14.5 Meters
In addition to the silver and the zinc, a resource of lead and copper has also been estimated using an Inverse Distance Squared (ID2) modeling method. Because the geological constraints and metallurgical recovery on the copper and lead are not as well understood as the silver and zinc, the lead and copper resources estimates have placed in the "inferred" category.
The mineral resource has been estimated by Garth Kirkham P.Geo. of Kirkham Geosystems Ltd. and reviewed by Allan Reeves P.Geo. of JDS Energy & Mining Inc. Mr. Reeves is an Independent Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and will be responsible for the Technical Report. As a consultant he has spent about 250 days onsite over a 3 year period providing technical advice and direction to the Silver Bull team. Mr. Kirkham is an independent consultant hired by JDS to prepare the resource estimation at Sierra Mojada. He is a leader in the field of resource estimation and was recently awarded the Julian Boldy Memorial award in 2012 by the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum (CIM) for his "exemplary efforts in resource modeling and estimation".
Tim Barry, President, CEO and director of Silver Bull states, "We are extremely pleased with this report and feel this is a big step forward for the company. At over 167 million ounces, Sierra Mojada is now one of the largest undeveloped silver resources in Mexico. With our recently completed financing for gross proceeds of $USD 9.2 million, the company is well financed to push the project to the next stage with a preliminary economic assessment, which will be led by JDS. It is also no small point to note that even though we have defined a much larger resource than previously reported, mineralization remains open on the deposit, and during 2013 we will have an underground drill program underway using our low cost termite drill rigs which will target a high grade silver zone defined by underground channel samples immediately adjacent to the deposit".
(bolded for emphasis)
Silver Bull will post the Technical Report from which the above resource numbers were extracted, onto the SEDAR website (www.sedar.com) upon receipt of the completed Technical Report which is expected within the next 45 days.
About the Shallow Silver Zone: The "Shallow Silver Zone" is an oxide silver deposit (+/- zinc, lead, & copper), hosted along an east-west trending fracture-karst system set in a cretaceous limestone-dolomite sequence. The mineralized body averages between 30m -- 90m thick, up to 200m wide and remains open in the east and west directions. Approximately 60% of the current 3.8 kilometer strike length is at or near surface before dipping at around 6 degrees to the east.
About Silver Bull: Silver Bull is a mineral exploration company listed on both the NYSE MKT and TSX stock exchanges and based out of Vancouver, Canada. The flagship "Sierra Mojada" project is located 150 kilometers north of the city of Torreon in Coahuila, Mexico and is highly prospective for silver and zinc. Silver Bull also owns two mineral exploration licences in Gabon, Africa, which are prospective for gold, manganese, and iron ore.
The technical information of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Mark Pfau, Member of the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America (MMSA), a qualified person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101.
On behalf of the Board of Directors
"Tim Barry"
Tim Barry, MAusIMM
Chief Executive Officer, President and Director
INVESTOR RELATIONS:
Matt Hallaran
+1 604 336 8096
info@silverbullresources.com
http://www.silverbullresources.com/s/news.asp?ReportID=576728
