- 01SVL starts maiden Kramer Hills gold drilling.
- 02Up to 22 holes/2,700m test oxide and deeper sulphides.
- 03Tests conceptual 5.1–8.5Mt oxide target.
Silver Mines (ASX: SVL) has commenced its first diamond drilling campaign at the Kramer Hills gold project in California, targeting near-surface mineralisation around the former Shaherald open pit.
Comprising up to 22 holes for a combined 2,700 metres, the initial program will investigate both oxide gold and possible deeper sulphide mineralisation.
It marks the first modern drilling assessment of a project where historical exploration defined five prospective open pits but only one was partly mined.
The work will test an existing conceptual exploration target of between 5.1 million tonnes and 8.5Mt of oxide material at grades of 1.0 to 1.6 grams per tonne gold.
Results will guide follow-up drilling and determine whether sufficient information can eventually be collected to support a compliant mineral resource estimate.
Historical Gold System
Drilling is concentrated on the Shaherald property at the eastern end of the five previously permitted pits, within a broader Kramer Hills claim package covering approximately 48 square kilometres.
Historical drilling returned shallow intercepts including 21.3m at 7.9g/t gold and 18.3m at 4.2g/t, with exploration largely confined to the upper 30m, although historical sections recorded some mineralised intercepts to approximately 60m below surface.
The planned holes will establish the geometry and grade distribution of the mineralised structure, with most inclined northward to intersect its southerly dip and others testing potential north-dipping structures.
“The historical information and previously permitted gold mine at Kramer Hills provide very strong support to our geological thesis on the potential for the shear zone to host economic quantities of gold, and we are looking forward to getting some modern drill holes into this extensive mineralised system,” managing director Jo Battershill said.
“[Whereas] the mine development work in the 1980s appears to have focused on the shallow, free-dig oxide gold mineralisation, the current drill program is designed to test both the oxide and potential sulphide zones.”
Long Exploration Record
Gold was identified along approximately 4km of the shear corridor during early mining activity, which included numerous shafts before operations ceased during the Second World War.
Beaver Resources subsequently permitted five open pits across a 1.5km strike length during the 1980s, but production stopped around 1990 after clay swelling caused problems with heap-leach treatment.
Mapping identifies a fault corridor extending more than 7km, while altered schists and veins near felsic dyke contacts are considered important controls on mineralisation.
Silver Mines began earning up to an 80% interest in Kramer Hills in July 2025 and has since undertaken mapping, geophysics, and verification sampling to refine its drill targets.
The unchanged exploration target corresponds to a potential 160,000 to 445,000 ounces of contained gold, derived principally from historical information about the five planned pits.
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