Bay State project - bonanza silver grades

1 June 2015

 

SUNRISE RESOURCES PLC

(the "Company")

 

 

BONANZA SILVER GRADES FROM UNDERGROUND SAMPLING

 BAY STATE PROJECT, NEVADA

 

Sunrise Resources plc, the AIM-traded diversified mineral exploration and development company, today announces the receipt of bonanza silver grades for samples from underground sampling of the Chihuahua Vein and associated bedded mineralisation on its Bay State Silver Project, Nevada.

 

Highlights

 

·     Sampling programme completed beyond the rock fall that had previously prevented our underground access to Chihuahua Adit.

 

·     Bonanza values up to 4kg/tonne silver (4,020g/t or 0.4% or 117oz/t) within replacement style mineralisation at end of adit over 61cm (2ft).

 

·     Over 1kg/tonne silver (1,123g/t or 33oz/t) average for 18 samples along 230m strike length to end of  adit.

 

·     Base metals enriched up to 10% combined lead-zinc-copper.

 

·     Chihuahua Vein now known to carry high grade silver over sampling length of 470m. The vein  remains open to the north and south.

 

·     Sampling generally restricted to vein widths which vary up to 1.5m along the adit. No wall rock  sampling was conducted in this programme.  

 

·     Drill plan being revised to focus exclusively on Chihuahua Vein System.

 

Commenting today, Executive Chairman Patrick Cheetham said: "These are outstanding results. The records of production from this mine are scant but we assume it was very high grade. The confirmation of bedded style mineralisation containing bonanza silver grades, and previously sampled at surface, presents an exciting additional target with excellent tonnage potential."

 

 

Further information

 

Sunrise Resources plc Patrick Cheetham, Executive Chairman	Tel:	+44 (0) 845 868 4590
Northland Capital Partners Limited Edward Hutton/David Hignell John Howes/Mark Treharne (Broking)	Tel:	+44 (0) 207 382 1100

 

 

 

Detailed Information

 

The Bay State Silver Project is located on the west flank of the Newark Valley in Eastern Nevada,

15km due east of the County town of Eureka. It was acquired by the Company in September 2014 and further claims were recently added to the project.

 

The mine was worked for silver in the 1870s and again in the 1900s when mining focused on two main NW-SE striking veins sets hosted within limestone. The largest workings are on the Chihuahua and Buckeye State Patents which together cover a strike length of some 900m and extend north and south of Mining Canyon along the Chihuahua Vein System. Two shafts were sunk on the border between these two patents, near the floor of the canyon, and are reported to extend to a depth of 120m with production mainly from extensive stopes above the 60m level. The Chihuahua Vein dips steeply to the west.

 

The mine workings include a 250m long adit ("the Chihuahua Adit") driven north along the Chihuahua Vein from the canyon floor. The Chihuahua Vein was mined (stoped) extensively above the adit but, it is reported, only to shallow depths below the adit.

 

In the 1940s tungsten mineralisation was reportedly discovered in the upper workings of the Chihuahua Adit and was worked during the war years providing tungsten for the war effort. The tungsten was reported to occur as a replacement mineralisation within limestone beds.

 

Today the main shaft is inaccessible and the Chihuahua Adit is blocked by a rock fall approximately 28m into the adit. The Company's previously reported sampling was therefore limited to surface outcrops of unworked vein material.

 

At the end of April the Company put together a specialist mine access team to enter the Chihuahua Adit from a higher level through the upper stopes where they break through to surface. This was successful and a total of 18 samples were taken, mainly as chip samples, across the exposed width of the Chihuahua Vein at various locations along the Chihuahua Adit over a strike length of 230m.

 

These samples, which are of material that was present in the roof of the adit or along the edges of the mine stopes above and below the adit, are of material left unmined in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.

 

The 18 vein samples averaged over 1kg/tonne (1,123g/t or 33oz/t) of silver with bonanza grades up to 4kg/t (4,020g/t or 117oz/t) silver over 61cm. Full results are shown in the attached table.

 

The time available and the physical constraints of the narrow mine openings, which would likely have followed highest grades of mineralisation, limited the amount of sampling that could be done on wall rocks and so the full widths and grades of mineralisation will need to be determined by drilling. Splay veins are known to be associated with the Chihuahua Vein and the wall rocks between the main vein and the splay veins are known to carry high grade silver values based on the Company's previously reported sampling. The wall rocks also carry stockwork silver mineralisation over significant widths, as previously reported, and in historical literature the Chihuahua Vein is described as a well-defined fissure-type quartz-calcite vein varying between 0.3 and 4.6m wide which splits periodically into stockworks up to 15m wide.

 

When these results are considered in conjunction with previously announced sampling results south of the Chihuahua Adit, high silver values are now demonstrated over a 470m strike length along the Chihuahua Vein. The vein remains open to both north and south.

 

The tungsten-bearing replacement beds in the upper mine workings were not sampled in the current programme but large galleries suggest the beds were mined over several metres thickness. This same zone of bedded mineralisation is believed to dip down at 22 degrees to the north and it is seen at the end of the Chihuahua Adit where the Chihuahua Vein cuts through it.  In the latest programme three samples taken within this bedded mineralisation averaged over 2kg/tonne silver.

 

In the existing drill plan 3 holes have been designed to test the resource potential of the Chihuahua Vein below the adit and below the workings on the south side of Mining Canyon. The programme will now be amended to direct all drilling at the Chihuahua Vein System.

 

A plan and a long section illustrating the layout of the Bay State Mine workings and the location of the samples now being reported are available on the Bay State Project page of the Company's website. A link to a video walk-through along the Chihuahua Adit and associated mine workings is also available on that page.

 

 

 

Ends

 

 

Notes:

 

The silver grade of samples is being reported in the units grammes/tonne (g/t) or kg/tonne (kg/t) and also in Troy ounces/short ton (oz/t).

 

The information in this release has been compiled and reviewed by Mr. Patrick Cheetham (MIMMM, MAusIMM) who is a qualified person for the purposes of the AIM Note for Mining and Oil & Gas Companies. Mr Cheetham is a Member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining and also a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy.

 

 

 

About Sunrise Resources plc

 

Sunrise Resources plc is an AIM-quoted diversified mineral exploration and development company.

 

The Company's objective is to develop profitable mining operations to sustain the Company's wider exploration efforts and create value for shareholders through the discovery of world-class deposits.

 

The Company has diamond and gold exploration interests in Western Australia and has staked claims and acquired leases over a number of projects in Nevada, USA, most recently at the Junction Gold Project.

 

The Company also holds diamond exploration interests in Finland and a white barite project in South-West Ireland.

 

Shares in the Company trade on AIM. EPIC: "SRES" www.sunriseresourcesplc.com

 

 

 

Bay State Silver Project

 

Results of Chihuahua Vein sampling along Chihuahua Adit

 

Sample	Distance	Sample	Sample	Silver	Silver	Lead	Zinc	Copper
No.	along adit	Type	Width (cm)	(g/t)	(oz/t)	%	%	%
BS-28	61	Chip	18	5	0.1	0.1	0.0	0.0
BS-29	66	Grab	-	8	0.2	0.1	0.5	0.1
BS-30	73	Chip	18	10	0.3	0.1	0.2	0.0
BS-31	80.5	Chip	79	212	6.2	0.1	2.1	0.1
BS-32	93.1	Chip	66	1,095	32.0	2.0	4.4	0.7
BS-33	187.5	Grab	-	1,730	50.5	1.0	0.2	0.7
BS-34	187.5	Grab	-	2,830	82.6	2.4	2.2	1.5
BS-35	189	Chip	91	165	4.8	1.7	0.2	0.5
BS-36	228	Grab	-	1,345	39.3	6.3	0.4	0.8
BS-37	226	Chip	61	4,020	117.4	2.3	4.5	2.1
BS-38	223	Chip	61	699	20.4	0.6	0.9	0.5
BS-39	228.6	Chip	15	2,660	77.7	6.2	3.0	1.1
BS-40	225	Chip	19	1,735	50.7	2.6	1.0	1.1
BS-41	211	Chip	23	857	25.0	1.3	4.1	0.6
BS-42	201.2	Chip	29	1,235	36.1	0.7	1.4	0.7
BS-43	193	Chip	10	1,500	43.8	2.7	6.5	1.0
BS-44	155	Chip	36	27	0.8	0.1	0.6	0.0
BS-45	129.8	Chip	122	82	2.4	0.2	1.6	0.1
				Silver	Silver	Lead	Zinc	Copper
				(g/t)	(oz/t)	%	%	%
			Average	1,123	32.8	1.7	1.9	0.6