Black Bear readies Shafter underground drilling aimed at silver resource growth

The stage 1 campaign is also expected to support the company’s mine restart studies.

Black Bear Minerals (ASX:BKB) is finalising safety and operational steps to access the decline and mobilise drilling crews underground.

The US Mine Safety and Health Administration has been onsite assessing final access requirements while American Mining and Tunnelling (AMT) is supporting underground readiness and rehabilitation planning.

Drilling from underground platforms is expected to allow shorter, more targeted holes from existing development and provide direct access to mineralised zones around historical workings.

“We’re completing the final operational-readiness steps to access the underground developments at Shafter and commence underground drilling,” CEO Dennis Lindgren said.

He said drilling would target extensions to high-grade silver mineralisation and support planned JORC conversion, MRE updates and mine-restart work.

Black Bear is bringing Shafter’s underground infrastructure back to operational readiness.

Initial work targets underground areas developed by previous operator Aurcana, with AMT supporting inspections, readiness and rehabilitation planning.

Following inspections AMT has advised that the declines and ground support are in good condition.

Any required rehabilitation or ground support will be completed before crews and drilling equipment enter the mine.

Underground drill planning is in its final stages.

Initial drilling will target areas accessible from existing development, including Presidio East and Ramp zones.

The program aims to define the mineralised system and test extensions to silver mineralisation within and beyond the current non-JORC resource footprint.

Drilling will also target Presidio mine workings, where mineralisation outside the foreign MRE extends across about 1km of strike but is yet to be fully quantified.

Underground access gives Black Bear a direct way to test areas that are hard to drill from surface, especially around historical workings and old stopes.

The drilling campaign will generate new geological and technical data to support Black Bear’s restart strategy at Shafter.

Results will support resource definition, planned JORC conversion and future MRE updates, while improving geological and geotechnical understanding around existing underground development.

The work will help assess historic mining areas and feed into future mine planning and restart studies.

No development decision has been made.

Any restart remains subject to technical studies, permitting, funding and other required approvals.

Shafter currently hosts a foreign Mineral Resource Estimate reported under Canadian NI 43-101 standards.

The estimate totals 1.89Mt at 289g/t silver for 17.57Moz of contained silver.

Black Bear is working to convert the estimate to JORC standards, with further validation and technical work needed before it can be reported as a JORC 2012 Mineral Resource.

There is no assurance the estimate will ultimately be reported under the JORC Code until that work is completed.

Once final underground readiness is complete, Black Bear will begin staged drilling as part of its broader exploration, resource definition and restart program at Shafter.