Project Overview
Attractive analog to the Silver Sand deposit
The Silverstrike Project is a polymetallic silver-gold-lead-zinc project within the prolific South American Epithermal Belt. It exhibits many similarities to our Silver Sand Project pre-discovery phase: it is a significant historic mining district with limited prior exploration and good upside exploration potential with mineralization starting at or near surface.
Project Highlights
- Attractive analog to the Silver Sand deposit: Silverstrike is situated on a historic mining district, with limited prior exploration and good upside potential
- Mineralization: Polymetallic silver-gold-lead-zinc project, containing historic surface workings, underground mine adits and mining infrastructure. Mineralization starts at or near surface and is comprised of veins and veinlets in massive, altered sandstone units
- Exploration potential: Inaugural 5,000 m drill program planned for 2021 with the objective to test for bulk tonnage and high-grade silver mineralization, leveraging New Pacific’s exploration and project advancement expertise in Bolivia
- Location and infrastructure: Located in La Paz Department, Bolivia, approximately 140 km southwest of the city of La Paz. Situated at an average of 4,000 metres above sea level, the Silverstrike Project benefits from year-round access via paved road and maintained municipal gravel roads. Good infrastructure present at site
- Ownership: Acquired 98% interest in December 2019. The land package is comprised of exploration concessions of approximately 13 square kilometers
History and Geology
- The Silverstrike Project is composed of Tertiary red sandstones and mudstone sequences that were intruded by a Tertiary rhyolitic volcanic dome and associated volcanoclastic sediments
- Contains extensive mining dumps, resulting from Spanish colonial mining activities that exploited near surface polymetallic silver-gold-lead-zinc mineralization. There is no active mining at the present time
- Prior Rio Tinto drill program confirmed the presence of silver and gold mineralization in 1995
- Field work completed in 2020 identified three significant new zones of gold and silver rich polymetallic mineralization. Highlighted chip and grab samples collected by New Pacific are presented in the accompanying figure
For further details, please refer to our news release related to the Silverstrike Project dated December 4, 2019, September 29, 2020 and November 19, 2020.
Silverstrike Chip Sample Intercept Highlights
Project News
All News
Property Ownership
In December 2019, New Pacific announced the acquisition of a 98% interest in the Silverstrike Project from a private Bolivian corporation. Under the agreement between New Pacific's wholly-owned subsidiary and the Silverstrike Property vendor, New Pacific will cover 100% of the future expenditures of exploration, mining, development and production activities. The agreement has a term of 30 years and renewable for another 15 years.
The Silverstrike Project is comprised of nine exploration licenses covering an area of approximately 13 km2 and owned 100% by New Pacific's Bolivian joint venture partner. New Pacific has entered into a mining association agreement with the Bolivian partner (the “Joint Venture”), under which New Pacific is required to cover 100% of the future expenditures on exploration, mining, development, and production activities in return for 98% economic interest in the Project.
The Silverstrike Project is located within 50 km of the Bolivian border with Chile. In line with many South American countries, Bolivia does not permit foreign entities to own property within 50 km of international borders (the “Restricted Area”). Property owners in the Restricted Area are, however, permitted to enter into mining association agreements, or joint ventures, with third parties, including foreign entities, for the development of mining activities under Bolivian Law No. 535 on Mining and Metallurgy (the “Mining Law”).
While New Pacific believes the Joint Venture is legally compliant with the Restricted Area requirements and the Mining Law, there is no assurance that New Pacific’s Bolivian partner will be successful in obtaining the approval of the Jurisdictional Mining Administrative Authority in Bolivia (Autoridad Jurisdiccional Administrativa Minera or AJAM) to convert the nine exploration licenses into an Administrative Mining Contract.