23:07:21 EDT Thu 18 Apr 2024
Enter Symbol
or Name
USA
CA



Silver Bullet Mines Corp
Symbol SBMI
Shares Issued 62,657,962
Close 2022-09-26 C$ 0.225
Market Cap C$ 14,098,041
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Silver Bullet identifies Pd, Au from Buckeye

2022-09-26 12:49 ET - News Release

Mr. John Carter reports

SILVER BULLET MINES CORP. DISCOVERY OF PALLADIUM AND GOLD

Silver Bullet Mines Corp. has assayed, among other elements, significant quantities of palladium and gold in the mineralized material from its Buckeye silver mine in Arizona. These surprise discoveries are not factored into any of the company's internal financial projections. This mineralized material was taken from a newly exposed section at Buckeye.

Palladium is currently trading at roughly $2,100 (U.S.) per ounce and gold is currently trading at roughly $1,650 (U.S.) per ounce. For reference below, Silver Bullet notes that one ppm (part per million) is equivalent to one gram per tonne. There are 28.35 grams in one ounce.

How the gold and palladium were found

The gold and palladium were discovered after Silver Bullet initially processed roughly 60 tons of Buckeye mine material at its 100-per-cent-owned mill, and then encountered challenges in pouring proper silver dore bars to satisfy the outstanding sample run order.

First batch sample from a 60-ton bulk sample

To help identify the possible source of this, Silver Bullet sent a sample on Sept. 7, 2022, from its concentrates of the 60-ton bulk sample to Lone Pine Analytical, a third party lab, for further analysis. That analysis, completed on Sept. 11, 2022, revealed, from this sample, being an average of two collected concentrate samples, elevated levels of palladium and gold, as per the attached chart.

In response to these unusual values, Silver Bullet will be undertaking referee sampling with another independent third party ISO accredited lab.

"Those are astonishing results for the gold and palladium," said A. John Carter, Silver Bullet's chief executive officer. "To the best of our knowledge the only significant producer of palladium in the United States of America is Sibanye-Stillwater in Montana, so this is a possible game changer, not just for SBMI but for platinum group metal exploration in Arizona. We have heard anecdotal evidence of Pt-Pd production as a byproduct of porphyry mining in the Globe area and have seen data from a local prospective Pt-Pd property, but we are still investigating what our results mean. At this time the company is actively investigating the source and recovery of the anomalous palladium and gold values and are currently engaging additional technical support in this pursuit."

The company believes the results above are representative of the 60 tons of the material extracted from the Buckeye mine.

Second batch samples from a 140-ton bulk sample

Silver Bullet then took, from another larger bulk sample, a sample batch of a further seven samples from various locations in the mill. This bulk sample represents roughly 140 tons of material from the Buckeye mine. Silver Bullet's assay team had initially assayed those samples for silver only. Subsequently, each of the following samples from this 140-ton bulk sample were labelled with unique identifiers as shown below:

  1. Head feed 700 ounces/ton Ag;
  2. 100-gram 2,503 oz/ton Ag concentrate;
  3. No. 1 table cons original;
  4. No. 1 table cons from mill;
  5. No. 2 table cons from mill;
  6. Tails;
  7. Dorie bead.

Those labels were provided by Silver Bullet's assay team to Lone Pine Analytics by the leader of the company's assay team, Robert Budd, who also collected and assayed those samples for silver. Silver Bullet has on prior occasions and on its website made disclosure of Mr. Budd's credentials and quality assurance/quality control processes, and will include these matters below in the QA/QC for Silver Bullet.

Second batch samples to Lone Pine Analytics

After being assayed for silver only by Silver Bullet, the second batch was then sent to Lone Pine Analytical for further analysis of additional elements. The average values for Au and Pd of the seven samples returned from Long Pine Analytics for the gold and the palladium were as noted herein.

The company believes these results are representative of the 140-ton bulk sample. The complete assay certificates with a photo of each sample will be posted to the company's website.

In response to these unusual values, the company will be undertaking referee sampling with another independent third party ISO accredited lab.

All of the roughly 200 tons of material (combined from the two bulk samples) were taken directly from the vein accessed at the lower drift. All 200 tons were taken and processed in the normal course, with no selective sampling.

"We made a decision early on to build our own mill in Arizona to high standards, and as a result we have been able to immediately recognize there were significant amounts of elements other than silver in this new material," continued Mr. Carter. "Standard exploration techniques may not have found the gold or palladium without the expenditure of millions of exploration dollars. We are there now, more quickly for much less money."

Silver Bullet has found a potential buyer for the concentrates that is likely able to process the palladium in addition to the gold and silver, but before making final decisions the company is waiting on further assay data and input from metallurgists, engineers and others.

QA/QC for Silver Bullet

All the samples above were collected by Mr. Budd, a metallurgical process engineer who began his career in metallurgical engineering in 1972. He has held various positions with various employers, including senior engineer, superintendent, engineer, technical assistant, technician and lab assistant. Most recently, prior to joining Silver Bullet, he was involved in designing and creating an internal assay facility in Arizona for Freeport McMorran Inc. He has also been the principal process specialist for Fluor Canada out of Vancouver, the senior metallurgical engineer for Doe Run Lead, the project engineer for the commissioning of a copper concentrator start-up at Oz Minerals' Prominent Hill mine in South Australia, senior metallurgical engineer for Cyprus Miami/Phelps Dodge Miami in Arizona, metallurgical engineer and metallurgical lab supervisor for Newmont Gold in Nevada, and chief metallurgist for Inspiration/Cyprus Miami in Arizona, among other positions.

The samples analyzed by Silver Bullet at its facility near Globe, Ariz., were processed by Mr. Budd through the lab jaw crusher, lab hammer mill and splitter box into an aliquot. Most of the pulverized aliquot was mixed with a flux and flour combination and melted in a crucible at 1,850 degrees F, with the remainder being logged and archived. Upon cooling, the poured melt was in the form of a metal button and slag, following which a bone ash cupel was utilized to eliminate the lead in the button to form a bead. The bead was then weighed, following which a solution of six-to-one distilled water to nitric acid was utilized to dissolve the silver in the bead at approximately 175 degrees F.

QA/QC for Lone Pine analytics

For each batch, Lone Pine Analytical of Phoenix, Ariz., sampled two distinct samples (approximately 200 milligrams), digested, filtered, diluted and analyzed. For the digestion, the lab used one millilitre HF, 4.5 mL nitric acid, 4.5 mL HCI. The samples were digested in a microwave in sealed PTFE tubes where the temperature reached 200 degrees C with a total cycle time of 40 minutes. Bismuth (Bi) was used the internal standard. A three-point calibration, plotted through zero, was used with excellent linear correlation for each element. Thus, the lab used an internal and external standards (instrument calibration). Chain-of-custody protocols were strictly observed. Lone Pine Analytical, as of Sept. 11, 2022, is in the process of renewing its ISO /IEC-17025 lab accreditation with a scope for metals in soils and rocks

Robert G. Komarechka, PGeo, an independent consultant, has reviewed and verified Silver Bullet's work referred to herein, and is the qualified person for this release.

We seek Safe Harbor.

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