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Gold/Mining/Energy : Mining News of Note -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LoneClone who wrote (31378)	1/19/2009 3:24:03 PM
From: LoneClone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 196083

Orko Silver Looks To Increase The Resource Base At La Preciosa By Enough To Pull It Free Of The Boom And Bust Trap By Our Canadian Correspondent minesite.com While many management teams have gone into hiding during these rather distressed times, Orko Silver, with Gary Cope at the helm, is forging on and delivering on its promises. In fact, Gary and his team should be commended on keeping shareholders up-to-date on the company’s exploration activities, most notably at the La Preciosa project in Mexico’s Durango state. Here, Gary recently gave investors an overview of 2008, a year that saw Orko drill more than 70,700 metres. That brings the grand total drilled to date to around 146,000 metres from 366 holes. So far La Preciosa has yielded up five resource estimates, with a sixth due out any day now. At last count the inferred resource tallied 15.35 million tonnes grading 190 grams silver and 0.321 grams gold per tonne, or 103.2 million ounces of silver equivalent. This marks a 30 per cent increase over the previous estimate, an increase that was largely due to continued exploration success on the Martha vein, which now accounts for about 56 per cent of the resource. But there should still be plenty more to come from this epithermal vein: the latest results from it have included an impressive 1.8 grams gold and 927.4 grams silver per tonne over 3.99 metres, within a broader 6.74 metre section running 1.11 grams gold and 561.6 grams silver per tonne. Gary has been through more than a few resource cycles so it is not surprising that given the fragile equity markets Orko has prudently put all four drill rigs on idle until the new resource is tabled and a preliminary economic assessment can be started. This will allow Gary and his team to continue to advance the project in the most efficient manner without wasting valuable cash resources. And it’s important to note that, despite a share price that has been hammered like most of the other junior explorers, Orko’s strategic planning has not changed. Since picking up the option on La Preciosa back in late 2003, the company’s mandate has been to build up ounces in the ground until the resource gets large enough to tempt a larger company to table a bid. The initial objective was to outline at least 100 million ounces of silver within the type of low-sulphidation, epithermal vein system that has made Mexico one of the world's leading producers of silver. With that resource objective achieved in 2008, the new goal is to define in the neighbourhood of 150 million ounces of silver. Given the growth in the resource base, Gary remains optimistic that La Preciosa will not fall into the same boom and bust trap that has been its undoing in the past. Because Orko is only the latest in a series of parties that have explored at or mined at the La Preciosa concessions over the last 300 or 400 years. Back in 1979, just as silver peaked at US$54.00 per ounce, Luismin (now the Mexican division of Goldcorp) drew up plans to build a processing mill on the project. But those plans were dashed when the price of silver fell to US$10.80 per ounce in March 1980. For its part, Orko Silver has picked up the pieces left by that mining bust and has successfully increased the resource during the latest boom from around 20 million ounces to the current 100 million-plus ounce level, with more coming. This growth has more than offset the fall in the price of silver during the most recent cycle, from just north of US$20 per ounce to its current level of around US$11 per ounce, even if Orko is itself only trading at a paltry US$0.45 per per silver equivalent ounce in the ground. For 2009, Orko Silver is looking at infill drilling on the Martha vein and exploration testing along the extensions of the other known vein trends on the property package. The company has also recently strengthened its overall land position with the acquisition of sole control of the adjacent Santa Monica property from Goldcorp. Orko also has the right to earn a 75 per cent stake in Silver Standard’s San Juan property, which is located to the north west of La Preciosa. Overall it looks a juicy land position in the heart of Mexican mining country. Now the key for Orko is to over come the current bust cycle and advance La Preciosa to the next level. With that in mind, Orko is in the enviable position of having cash in the till, a new resource statement pending and that set to be followed by an economic evaluation. All in all the company appears to be well positioned to ride out the current storm. From a shareholder perspective it looks as though Orko is poised to continue methodically to build up resources while keeping shareholders informed on the progress in a timely manner. Not much more you can ask for in this current environment, and a set of procedures more junior exploration companies should follow.