Vancouver, British Columbia (Newsfile Corp. – December 10, 2024) - Defiance Silver Corp. (TSXV: DEF) (FSE: D4E) (WKN: A1JQW5) (“Defiance” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce a Mineral Resource Estimate (“MRE”) prepared in accordance with the National Instrument 43-101 - Standard for Disclosure for Mineral Projects (“NI 43-101”) for the 100% owned Tepal Gold-Copper Project, located in the municipality of Tepalcatepec, Michoacán State, in south-western Mexico.
Highlights Include:
- 111.67 million tonnes (Mt) of Measured & Indicated Mineral Resources averaging 0.26 g/t gold for 926,000 ounces of gold
- 111.67 Mt Measured & Indicated Mineral Resources averaging 0.19% copper for 473.86 million pounds (Mlb) of copper
- 111.67 Mt of Measured & Indicated Mineral Resources averaging 1.55 g/t silver for 5.58 million ounces (Moz) of silver
- 124.36 Mt of Inferred Mineral Resources averaging 0.25 g/t gold for 985,000 ounces of gold
- 124.36 Mt of Inferred Mineral Resources averaging 0.16% copper for 451.0 Mlb copper
- 124.36 Mt of Inferred Mineral Resources averaging 1.46 g/t silver for 5.83 Moz of silver
- Mineral resources were estimated using a cut-off grade of 13 $/t NSR for the oxidized zone and 15 $/t NSR for the sulphide zone; both the oxide and sulfide estimates lie within the optimized pit shell
- Metallurgical testing indicates recoveries of 86% Cu and 54% Au for the North/South Zones and 84% Cu and 50% Au for the Tizate Zone mineralization which would produce a 23% Cu copper concentrate with gold credits.
- The MRE was independently prepared by Micon International Limited (“Micon”)
MRE for the Tepal Project
The MRE, independently prepared by Micon’s QPs, have classified the mineral resources for the Tepal Project in the Measured, Indicated and Inferred categories for the Tepal North Zone resources and the Indicated and Inferred categories for Tepal South Zone and Tizate Zone resources (as defined in the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (“CIM”) Definition Standards for Mineral Resources & Mineral Reserves incorporated by reference into NI 43-101) and has an effective date of October 30, 2024.
Table 1 summarizes the MRE, and Figures 1 to 4 show various plan views and cross sections of the new block model and/or optimized pit outlines. Tepal North Zone, Tepal South Zone and Tizate deposits are all part of the Tepal Project; the three deposits have been estimated separately to honour their geometry and grade characteristics.
Table 1: Tepal Project Mineral Resource Estimates (rounded values)
Open Pit Model | Resource Category | Weathering Zone | Average Grade | Content Metal | |||||||
Tonnage | NSR | Cu | Au | Ag | NSR | Cu | Au | Ag | |||
Mt | $/t | % | g/t | g/t | million $ | thousand lb | thousand oz | thousand oz | |||
In-Pit Tepal North Zone | Measured | Oxide | 2.71 | 31.16 | 0.31 | 0.45 | 1.03 | 84 | 18,818 | 39 | 90 |
Sulphide | 21.21 | 38.04 | 0.24 | 0.39 | 0.92 | 807 | 111,170 | 269 | 627 | ||
Indicated | Oxide | 3.85 | 17.51 | 0.19 | 0.25 | 0.80 | 67 | 16,508 | 31 | 99 | |
Sulphide | 28.51 | 25.35 | 0.18 | 0.23 | 1.22 | 723 | 110,322 | 213 | 1,114 | ||
M+I | Oxide | 6.56 | 23.15 | 0.24 | 0.33 | 0.90 | 152 | 35,327 | 70 | 189 | |
Sulphide | 49.72 | 30.77 | 0.20 | 0.30 | 1.09 | 1,530 | 221,492 | 481 | 1,741 | ||
Total | 56.28 | 29.88 | 0.21 | 0.30 | 1.07 | 1,682 | 256,818 | 551 | 1,930 | ||
Inferred | Oxide | 2.60 | 12.91 | 0.15 | 0.18 | 1.17 | 34 | 8,750 | 15 | 97 | |
Sulphide | 26.73 | 23.82 | 0.17 | 0.21 | 1.21 | 637 | 101,909 | 177 | 1,040 | ||
Total | 29.33 | 22.86 | 0.17 | 0.20 | 1.21 | 670 | 110,659 | 192 | 1,137 | ||
In-Pit Tepal South Zone | Indicated | Oxide | 1.22 | 28.27 | 0.22 | 0.40 | 1.29 | 34 | 5,922 | 16 | 50 |
Sulphide | 10.78 | 36.63 | 0.24 | 0.36 | 1.13 | 395 | 57,569 | 124 | 392 | ||
Total | 11.99 | 35.78 | 0.24 | 0.36 | 1.15 | 429 | 63,492 | 140 | 443 | ||
Inferred | Oxide | 1.48 | 10.25 | 0.11 | 0.14 | 0.87 | 15 | 3,635 | 7 | 41 | |
Sulphide | 35.84 | 35.02 | 0.18 | 0.41 | 1.29 | 1,255 | 145,779 | 477 | 1,481 | ||
Total | 37.32 | 34.04 | 0.18 | 0.40 | 1.27 | 1,270 | 149,414 | 484 | 1,523 | ||
In-Pit Tizate Zone | Indicated | Oxide | 4.10 | 11.50 | 0.13 | 0.16 | 1.79 | 47 | 11,493 | 21 | 236 |
Sulphide | 39.30 | 22.52 | 0.16 | 0.17 | 2.35 | 885 | 142,057 | 214 | 2,970 | ||
Total | 43.40 | 21.47 | 0.16 | 0.17 | 2.30 | 932 | 153,549 | 235 | 3,206 | ||
Inferred | Oxide | 4.55 | 9.58 | 0.14 | 0.12 | 2.19 | 44 | 14,450 | 18 | 321 | |
Sulphide | 53.16 | 21.15 | 0.15 | 0.17 | 1.67 | 1,124 | 176,488 | 292 | 2,853 | ||
Total | 57.71 | 20.24 | 0.15 | 0.17 | 1.71 | 1,168 | 190,938 | 310 | 3,174 | ||
In-Pit Total Tepal+Tizate | Measured | Oxide + Sulphide | 23.92 | 37.26 | 0.25 | 0.40 | 0.93 | 891 | 129,988 | 308 | 717 |
Indicated | 87.75 | 24.52 | 0.18 | 0.22 | 1.72 | 2151 | 343,872 | 618 | 4,861 | ||
M+I | 111.67 | 27.25 | 0.19 | 0.26 | 1.55 | 3,043 | 473,860 | 926 | 5,578 | ||
Inferred | 124.36 | 25.00 | 0.16 | 0.25 | 1.46 | 3,109 | 451,011 | 985 | 5,834 |
Resource Estimate Notes:
- The effective date of the MRE is October 30, 2024.
- The Mineral Resource Estimate has been stated using a NSR $/t value cut-off grade. As per the economic assumption the cut-off grade is 13 $/t NSR for the oxide zone and 15 $/t for the sulphide zone.
- William Lewis P.Geo., and Chitrali Sarkar M.Sc., P.Geo., of Micon are the QPs responsible for the MRE, as defined in NI 43-101.
- The mineral resources disclosed in this report were estimated using the CIM standards for mineral resource and reserve definitions and the CIM best practices guidelines for resource estimation.
- The mineral resources reported are contained within the boundaries of a pit-shell derived from the open pit optimizer, assuming surface mining methods with an overall slope angle of 45 degrees and with the original block model re-blocked to 20m x 20m x 20m. Mineralized blocks outside of the pit-shell are not considered to be part of the MRE.
- An open pit cut-off grade of 13 $/t NST for the oxide zone and 15 $/t for sulphide zone was calculated for the MRE, using a gold price of US$ 2,300/oz, a silver price of US$30/oz and a copper price of US$4.8/lb, mining cost US$2.0/t, processing cost US$10/t for oxide and US$12/t for sulphide, G&A costs of US$3/t. and relevant treatment and refining charges (TCRCs).
- Molybdenum has not been considered to be part of NSR calculation at this time due to insufficient metallurgical testwork to determine the applicable process recovery.
- The MRE has been classified according to CIM definitions of Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resources for Tepal North Zone and Indicated and Inferred for Tepal South and Tizate Zones. The Mineral Resource classification has also been visually reviewed to eliminate any” Spotted Dog” effect, commonly seen in computer-generated models.
- The mineral resource results are presented in-situ within the optimized pit.
- Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.
- Geological modelling and the MRE have been completed using Leapfrog Geo and Edge software.
- The tonnes and metal contents are rounded to reflect that the numbers are an estimate and any discrepancies in the totals are due to the rounding effects.
- Micon has not identified any legal, political, environmental, or other factors that could materially affect the potential development of the mineral resource estimate.
Silver has been included in the current NSR calculation for the first time as it was not reported in any of the previously released mineral resource estimates. Molybdenum has not been included as part of the current NSR calculation for the MRE due to insufficient metallurgical testwork to determine the applicable process recovery. However, molybdenum grades are significant, and the Company will aim to included this in any future MRE or Preliminary Economic Assessment.
The current mineral resource estimate focuses exclusively on an open pit resource. However, while performing the interpretation for the Tepal South Zone mineralization, Micon noticed that the mineralized zone is dipping sharply towards the south at the south-east end of the deposit (Figure 4). The high-grade material within the low-grade envelopes also follows a similar trend, and it is believed that there could be underground resource potential for this area. Micon’s QPs suggest performing a study using a combination of open pit and underground mining methods in future resource estimates.
Figure 1: Plan view of the Tepal Project showing new MRE optimized pit outlines diamond drilling collars
Figure 2: Long section, looking east, along Tepal North Zone block model with optimized pit
Figure 3: Cross section (35m) thick along Tepal South Zone block model with optimized pit, showing future exploration target with deep high-grade intercept of TEP-11-026