Bill Excellon ($EXL on the VSE trading at $0.24 Canadian) is a cheap Mexico grassroots silver play that is drilling at the moment. Apex Silver is footing the bill for the program and judging the market action on Friday and today, I suspect that they are seeing interesting looking core. The drilling began last Monday and 1 hole is complete. Apex is permitted to drill up to 36 holes with each hole being 150-200 meters in depth; obviously they are expecting big things here. I believe that there are 12 million fully diluted and the cash position is very small. From what I could gather insiders own about 20-25% of the stock. Anyways, here is the release:
have been buying this one today. Drilling in Mexico at the moment. News release I have
attached will sum up most of what you need to know here. I have been told from a good source
that hole 1 which is complete hit a 100 meter interval that appears to be mineralized. with these
types of deposits it is fairly easy to see silver in core. Very good group behind this company and it
is still unknown really. Not sure about the fully diluted or cash at the moment but the outstanding
of 12.1 million shares on stockwatch is correct. I would guess F/d may be about 16 million or so.
Excellon Resources Inc -
Excellon has been advised that Platosa drilling
is under way
Excellon Resources Inc
EXN
Shares issued 6,699,805
1999-01-12 close $0.17
Wednesday Jan 13 1999
Mr. Richard Brissenden reports
Excellon has been advised by Apex Silver Mines Ltd. that it has commenced a
drilling program on the Platosa property.
The Platosa property is five kilometres northwest of Bermijillo, Durango State,
Mexico and lies 1.5 kilometres from a major paved highway, railroad and electric
supply. In December 1997 Excellon's geological consultants completed a program
which included geological mapping, geochemistry, geological interpretation,
mapping and sampling (47 samples). The following paragraph is taken from
Apex's report.
Mineralization observed at Platosa is typical of that seen throughout the 2,200
kilometre long belt of replacement skarn deposits that crosses northern Mexico.
Platosa lies centrally within this belt and offers attractive possibilities for containing
additional economic base and precious metals-rich skarn replacement ores. The
area lies only 25 kilometres from the Ojuela mine at Mapimi which produced five
to six million tonnes of ore grading in excess of 3.5 grams per tonne Au, 475
grams per tonne Ag, 15 per cent Pb, 10 per cent Zn and 0.2 per cent Cu. There
has been previous mining at Platosa where more than 75,000 tonnes of high-grade
ores were recovered from the old workings. Five selected samples were taken
from the existing underground workings. Assays from the samples ranged from
0.3 grams per tonne Au to 9.6 grams per tonne Au; 960 grams per tonne Ag to
1,600 grams per tonne Ag; 12 per cent to 19 per cent Pb; 5.1 per cent to 39 per
cent Zn; and 1 per cent to 3 per cent Cu. Furthermore, 1970 vintage smelter
liquidation sheets for the Platosa mine ores show 0.35 of a gram to 1.75 grams
per tonne Au; 3,000 to 3,750 grams per tonne Ag; 30 per cent to 40 per cent Pb;
and 2.0 per cent to 12 per cent Zn. The fact that these grades and the style of
mineralization are similar to those at Mapimi strongly indicates the Mapimi-like ore
bodies and/or metals contents might be expected at Platosa. The property has
been owned by a Mexican family and until Excellon's recent involvement has never
had modern geological techniques applied to it nor has it ever been drilled.
On Aug. 18, 1998 Excellon signed an exploration and development agreement
with Apex with respect to the Platosa property. Apex is a worldwide mining and
exploration and development company with a primary focus on silver. It's shares
are traded on the American Stock Exchange.
Under the terms of the agreement Apex can earn a 65 per cent direct interest in
the property with Excellon retaining a 35 per cent interest. At that point a joint
venture would be formed. Should Apex decide to bring the property into
production it would provide Excellon with a bankable feasibility study.
The agreement provides for property payments by Apex to Excellon to
$1.35-million (U.S.) over 4.5 years and minimum exploration expenditures of
$1.5-million (U.S.) by Apex over five years with a minimum $100,000 (U.S.) in
the first year. On signing Apex made an initial property payment to Excellon of
$75,000 (U.S.). Excellon is responsible for making all property payments
(totalling $973,000 (U.S.) over 4.5 years) to the underlying property owners
during the option period.
(c) Copyright 1999 Canjex Publishing Ltd. canada-stockwatch.com
old url (better for printing)
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