A priority for Silver Viper is exploration of the El Rubi Zone, the first target for this round of work

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Image: Drill turns at Silver Viper's La Virginia gold-silver project. Photo: courtesy of PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay.

Silver Viper Minerals Corp. (the “Company” or “Silver Viper”) (TSX-V: VIPR) is pleased to announce commencement of Phase II drilling at the La Virginia Gold-Silver Exploration Project, in the Sierra Madre of eastern Sonora state, Mexico.  This follow-up program is designed to expand upon discoveries made during the Company’s initial drill test of 2018.  A priority for Silver Viper is exploration of the El Rubi Zone, the first target for this round of work. Drilling began on November 26th and is planned to total 5,000m of diamond drilling in approximately 20 holes.

Silver Viper’s first phase drilling program in 2018 at La Virginia included five drill holes at El Rubi, returning a best result of 13.3m core length (estimated true width 6.0m) averaging 3.16g/t gold and 228g/t silver for a gold equivalent1 grade of 6.42g/t gold or silver equivalent1 grade of 449g/t silver (see news release of Jan 14th, 2019).  Drilling at El Rubi has encountered mineralization over 100m of strike length. Phase II work is designed to test for the extension of this zone along trend and at depth. The program will provide a systematic test of the structure on 50m sections. With this work, Silver Viper hopes to generate sufficient data points to allow the calculation of a maiden resource estimate at El Rubi.  In addition to work at El Rubi, the program will continue to probe prospective targets.

Silver Viper’s President and CEO Steve Cope states, “We are excited to begin the phase two drill program at La Virginia. The results from phase one were very encouraging and we look forward to continuing on that success by both expanding on the discovery at El Rubi and testing the numerous anomalies in the surrounding area.”

Since acquiring the project, Silver Viper has completed diamond drilling on five target areas totaling 4,753m in 20 drill holes and completed regional exploration programs of stream sediment sampling, geological/prospecting traverses and soil sampling. The regional program to date has resulted in the collection of over 1,600 soil samples and rock chip samples across the largely unexplored property.  Drilling by the Company to date builds upon a sizeable database including 52,635m of drill core from 188 diamond drill holes generated by the efforts of previous operators between 2010 and 2013. Silver Viper is expanding upon this work by continuing exploration northward into prospective untested ground.

About the Project

La Virginia is located 220km east-northeast of Hermosillo, Sonora. It is a large exploration property, primarily prospective for fault-controlled, low-sulphidation epithermal precious metal mineralization.  The property and historical exploration database were acquired by way of option agreements made with two distinct parties. Gold and silver mineralization at La Virginia occurs within breccias, veins and stockworks hosted primarily by andesitic volcanics, often in close spatial association to or cross-cutting pre-mineral dacite dykes and controlled by fractures and faults that define the regional structural trend.  Originally 37,700 hectares in size, Silver Viper’s reconnaissance program has identified key targets and trends which are of primary interest.  The Company has filed reductions of the large concessions to better focus efforts on the high priority trends.

QA/QC

Analytical results herein represent samples of halved diamond drill core submitted by Silver Viper staff directly to Bureau Veritas, Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico.  Samples were crushed, split and pulverized as per Bureau Veritas method PRP70-250, then analysed for gold by lead collection fire assay fusion on a 30g split with AAS finish, and for a multi-element suite including silver by multi-acid digestion with ICP-ES/MS finish. Samples triggering precious metal over-limit thresholds of 10g/t Au or 200g/t Ag were retested by lead collection fire assay fusion with a gravimetric finish.  Silver Viper monitors QA/QC using commercially sourced standards and locally sourced blank materials inserted within the sample sequence at regular intervals.

Dale Brittliffe, P.Geo., Vice President of Exploration is the ‘Qualified Person’ under National Instrument 43-101 and has approved the scientific and technical information contained in this news release. Ongoing verification of scientific and technical information is achieved by direct involvement in the exploration work, requiring several site visits by the Qualified Person during the course of the year.

Source: Company Press Release