Investigator Resources gears up to drill Paris project as silver price continues climbing
Drilling on a previously excluded area of Investigator Resources’ Paris silver project is expected to start in November.
As silver follows gold’s upward climb, Investigator Resources (ASX: IVR) is gearing up to drill its wholly owned Paris silver project in South Australia.
Investigator revealed this morning preparations were “well advanced” to begin drilling at Paris, which is believed the highest grade undeveloped primary silver project in Australia.
Drill rig mobilisation to site is scheduled for early next month with the South Australian Department for Energy and Mining approving Investigator’s work plan for the project.
Additionally, the Paris camp has been re-established and program notifications completed.
“With the significant support shown by investors through the recent $8 million capital raising, the Investigator team [has] moved quickly towards the commencement of drilling at Paris,” Investigator managing director Andrew McIlwain said.
“As recently announced, the 15,000m infill drill program is focused on improving resource confidence and upgrading inferred resources to indicated resource status.”
Mr McIlwain added that previous drilling had improved the project’s silver grade and the company anticipated this would again be the outcome from the upcoming drilling program.
Paris silver project
Paris has a current resource of 9.3 million tonnes at 139 grams per tonne silver and 0.6% lead for 42Moz of contained silver and 55,000t of contained lead.
Investigator noted that the resource is shallow and amenable to a bulk open pit operation.
All-up, the upcoming campaign will comprise 15,000m of infill and exploration drilling plus 5,000m of satellite exploration drilling.
Site preparations are already underway in readiness for the drilling program.
Soaring silver price
With the silver price soaring in recent months, Investigator plans to take advantage of the precious metal’s anticipated continued climb.
The company plans to complete the final pre-feasibility study components for developing the asset within a nine-month timeframe.
Silver has been steadily rising since July – reaching a peak of US$29.37/oz earlier this month.
Since then, the metal’s price has pulled back slightly and was last trading at US$27.30/oz (A$37.83/oz).
Analysts expect silver’s rise will continue for months to come due to production declines and increased demand.