Sterling Metals Discovers High Grade Polymetallic Mineralization, Expands Drill Program and Earns 100% Ownership of the Sail Pond Silver and Base Metal Project
I've watched Sterling closely over the last few weeks. The CEO tells a compelling story, and he's not wrong that the deposit they're poking at bears some strong resemblances to Keno Hill... but, Keno Hill has more than a few issues, too, that appear they are being duplicated here... in a more podiform style of deposition strung together with interconnections composed of rather narrow veinlets. If its a string of pearls... well, you have be able to, and have to do a lot of work to, locate the pearls instead of just string... And, as you continue looking, maybe all you get is string ?
Around the first week of September, the price began a steady decline... in context clearly suggesting that they were probably seeing if not yet getting assays on results that were, perhaps, more string and less pearls.
Today, they reported out a limited number of holes that... while not bad news, in that they confirm strongly enough that there is mineralization present... also not good news of the sort, and in the magnitude, the market, before September 3rd, was probably hoping for. The shares spiked from $0.25 to $0.335... and are heading lower again already... I wasn't comfortable taking a position prior to Sept 3... saw no reason to consider it after September 3, and I'm not seeing evidence reported here, yet, that suggests the silver potential in this trend is anywhere close to matching the high grade values in wide intercepts that I know do exist in other locations... So, nothing but "wait for it" being revealed here, so far...
That could easily change... given the nature of the regional geological drivers...
But, if these were the best targets and the ones that they sorted out to test first ? It suggests more work needs to be done on the geological models to rethink how to best approach the potentials they've got here. Of course, the hole you did drill might have missed the target by a millimeter... and you'd never know ? Hopefully, a bit of downhole geophysics might eliminate some of those sorts of risks ?
A "structural" approach probably essential... and that means finding a way to make the orientations the rocks present... magnetic orientations, etc., into useful information... and to use that in learning how deep you need to look, as well as "where" you need to look... at depth ? Geophysics that expose the strike in the rocks... and variance in the dispositions of the metals conductivity relative to the rocks orientations, in layering, or diffusion zones, or ore shoots... would be useful. And, a difficulty, that what you are looking for might only be found down at 250 meters, or 400 meters... and drilling holes that end at 200 meters is then just as good as not even bothering with looking. Early shallow holes hoping to find "the big one" a typical approach. Far more useful... and conservative and cost effective in the long run... are early holes that target better illuminating the geological context... to learn as much or more than you can from drilling focused on "better shows"...
The "Ag Equivalents" they report are uniformly less than 50% value in silver... so the #'s reported are basically half or less value in the silver content the numbers suggest. I'm not a fan of reporting "equivalents" as headline numbers, as they mislead investors about the mineral potentials. Here's it suggests "lots of silver"... and what it delivers in fact is something between equal value and twice as much value in zinc as in silver... with a few holes having more value in copper or lead than silver... but all of the most valuable holes being mostly something other than silver driving the "equivalent" values.
There's a trend to higher values deeper, below 100 meters, and again at 175 meters some higher values emerge... with not much to justify going that deep to get it. The highest value reported is 19 oz. silver per ton... from an intercept of 0.4 meters... at a depth of 114 meters.
And, that's a problem too, that all of the highest values come from intercepts that are less than 0.5 meters in width...
In basketball, good success in a long range 3 point shot might be called "nothing but net"...
In mining exploring for the pearls in a string of pearls deposit... this might be called "nothing but string"...
More holes drilled than reported... so, keeping tabs on what's been done, and what's been reported... and what's not been reported yet... worth doing for those with a keen interest.
But, there are lots of competitors out there with equivalent or higher grades in much wider intercepts... or those with comparably structured deposits, with higher grades in silver, and wiser intercepts... in which the "secondary" values are gold in multiples of grams per ton... instead of zinc... And, if zinc is the point... deposits with much wider intercepts at much higher grades... at or very near the surface...
Wait for it... costs nothing but time, risks nothing... and adds to value in your own learning curve... |
