Silver Elephant Pulacayo Drill-Hole Reports 99-Meter Intersection Grading 27.8 g/t Gallium, 9.7g/t Indium, 21.2 g/t Silver, 1.1% Zinc, and 0.5% Lead in Bolivia
Vancouver, May 21, 2024 - Silver Elephant Mining Corp. (TSX: ELEF) (OTC Pink: SILEF) (FSE: 1P2N) ("Silver Elephant" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has identified multiple occurrences of gallium (Ga) and indium (In) in selected drill core at its flagship Pulacayo silver-lead-zinc project ("Pulacayo Project") in Potosi department, Bolivia.
While conducting a routine review of the Pulacayo project drillhole database, the Company recognized several wide intervals of gallium and indium mineralization from four diamond-drill-holes. The assays of the four drill holes (PUD 28 to 31) are tabulated below. Hole PUD 28 contained a 99-meter ("m") intersection grading gallium 27.8 grams per tonne ("g/t"), indium 9.7 g/t, silver 21.2 g/t, zinc 1.1%, and lead 0.5%.
| HOLE ID | From (m) | To (m) | Int (m) | True Width (m) | Ga (g/t) | In (g/t) | Ag (g/t) | Pb (%) | Zn (%) |
| PUD028 | 131 | 230 | 99 | 89.7 | 27.8 | 9.7 | 21.2 | 0.5 | 1.1 |
| Inc. | 149 | 156 | 7 | 6.3 | 24.0 | 9.4 | 2.0 | 1.3 | 1.7 |
| Inc. | 183 | 194 | 11 | 10 | 30.1 | 28.8 | 3.8 | 0.5 | 2.1 |
| Inc. | 188 | 192 | 4 | 3.6 | 30.9 | 50.4 | 2.7 | 0.9 | 3.0 |
| Inc. | 212 | 225 | 13 | 11.8 | 26.7 | 21.6 | 113.7 | 0.5 | 1.7 |
| Inc. | 212 | 216 | 4 | 3.6 | 27.1 | 32.5 | 250.3 | 0.8 | 2.3 |
| PUD029 | 22 | 39 | 17 | 12 | 24.5 | 4.9 | 14.6 | 0.5 | 1.0 |
| Inc. | 25 | 31 | 6 | 4.2 | 23.6 | 10.3 | 30.9 | 0.9 | 2.6 |
| Inc. | 30 | 32 | 2 | 1.4 | 23.1 | 15.8 | 60.0 | 1.7 | 3.7 |
| PUD029 | 49 | 70 | 21 | 14.8 | 26.1 | 4.8 | 11.6 | 0.5 | 1.4 |
| Inc. | 53 | 61 | 8 | 5.7 | 28.1 | 9.1 | 24.7 | 0.9 | 2.6 |
| Inc. | 53 | 56 | 3 | 2.1 | 29.5 | 16.6 | 41.3 | 1.1 | 4.5 |
| PUD029 | 108 | 123 | 15 | 10.6 | 24.5 | 6.2 | 23.8 | 0.9 | 1.7 |
| Inc. | 114 | 117 | 3 | 2.1 | 19.6 | 11.6 | 50.3 | 1.9 | 3.0 |
| PUD030 | 115 | 118 | 3 | 1.7 | 18.6 | 7.1 | 75.4 | 0.3 | 0.1 |
| PUD030 | 214 | 233 | 19 | 10.9 | 30.7 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| PUD031 | 63 | 71 | 8 | 6.6 | 2.9 | 3.1 | 25.5 | 0.8 | 1.1 |
| Inc. | 64 | 65 | 1 | 0.8 | 4.3 | 8.0 | 39.7 | 0.4 | 1.0 |
| PUD031 | 75 | 82 | 7 | 5.7 | 2.1 | 5.0 | 10.9 | 0.4 | 1.2 |
| Inc. | 81 | 82 | 1 | 0.8 | 2.0 | 9.0 | 15.2 | 0.7 | 1.5 |
The Company is highly encouraged by the gallium and indium results and will continue to evaluate this potential given:
1. Gallium and indium are typically associated with zinc in polymetallic deposits similar to Pulacayo.
The Pulacayo project has a total indicated resource of 106.7 million ounces of silver, 1.4 billion pounds of zinc and 690 million pounds of lead published in the Technical Report dated October 13, 2020 and tabulated below.
| Combined Pulacayo and Paca Indicated Mineral Resources | ||||
| Tonnes | Ag (g/t) | Pb % | Zn % | |
| Oxide | 2,185,000 | 155 | - | - |
| Sulfide | 45,855,000 | 65 | 0.69 | 1.37 |
Combined Indicated Mineral Resources includes Pulacayo pit-constrained and out-of-pit plus only Paca pit-constrained resources. Oxide resources use a 50 g/t Ag cutoff. Sulfide resources use a 100 g/t Ag Eq cutoff. Ag Eq = Silver Equivalent (Recovered) = (Ag g/t*89.2%)+((Pb%*(US$0.95/lb. Pb/14.583 Troy oz./lb./US$17 per Troy oz. Ag)*(10,000*91.9%))+((Zn%*(US$1.16/lb. Zn/14.583 Troy oz./lb./US$17 per Troy oz. Ag)*(10,000*82.9%)). Sulphide zone metal recoveries of 89.2% for Ag, 91.9% for Pb, and 82.9% for Zn were used in the Silver Equivalent (Recovered) equation and reflect metallurgical testing results disclosed previously for the Pulacayo Deposit. Matthew Harrington P. Geo., Michael Cullen, P. Geo. and Osvaldo Arce, P. Geo are the independent Qualified Persons for the mineral resource estimate ("N.I. 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate Technical Report for the Pulacayo Project Effectve Date October 13, 2020"). They have verified all data and the QA/QC methodology. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.
2. The four drill holes were drilled between 2003 and 2005 by a previous operator. Gallium and indium results have not been used in any resource calculation to date.
3. The wide gallium and indium intersection with consistent grades from PUD 28 suggests the presence of additional mineralization in PUD 28's surroundings.
The Company has reviewed all available data, selected 171 samples from 12 drill holes and submitted them to SGS Laboratories Services to assay for gallium and indium. The samples were selected for testing because of their proximity to PUD 28-31.
John Lee, CEO of Silver Elephant comments: "There is lot of work ahead to establish Pulacayo as a potentially strategic source of gallium and indium supply to the North American market. We are cautiously optimistic of exploring this new dimension at Pulacayo to take advantage of increasing demand for gallium and indium (and rising prices) in high-tech 5G and LCD applications."
Both indium and gallium prices are trading at approximately $10/oz (dailymetalprice.com), with prices doubling since 2020. On August 1, 2023, China began restricting exports of gallium and germanium as part of its broader export control rules, with a focus on limiting the exports of critical minerals, including gallium, germanium and graphite.
Indium is an essential ingredient in solar panels, touch screens and LCD panels while gallium is used in most advanced semiconductor chipsets in 5G applications with reduced power consumption and heat generation vs silicon counterparts.
Total annual world gallium and indium production is estimated by U.S. Geological Survey (2022) to be 15 million oz and 32 million oz respectively. China currently accounts for over 90% of the global gallium production and over 65% of the global indium production, as well as a substantial portion of the world's exports.
QA/QC
An industry standard Quality Assurance/Quality Control program was used during the various drill campaigns. All core and other samples were split with half being bagged, labelled and shipped directly to the laboratory. The other 50% split is retained in a secure facility. Both standards and blanks were inserted at regular intervals within each sample batch prior to shipment to the laboratory. These comprised 3-5% (depending on the phase of the drill campaign) of analyzed material. For further details, the reader is referred to the N.I. 43-101 cited above.
Qualified Person
The technical contents of this news release have been prepared under the supervision of Bill Pincus, who is an independent consultant of the Company. Mr. Pincus is a qualified person as defined by the guidelines of NI 43-101.
About Silver Elephant Mining Corp.
Silver Elephant is a silver mining company, with its flagship Pulacayo-Paca silver project in production since October 2023 in Bolivia.
Further information on Silver Elephant can be found at www.silverelef.com.
Silver Elephant Mining Corp.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
"John Lee"
CEO
For more information about Silver Elephant, please contact Investor Relations:
+1.604.569.3661 ext. 101
info@silverelef.com
www.silverelef.com
FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
Certain statements contained in this news release, including statements which may contain words such as "expects", "anticipates", "intends", "plans", "believes", "estimates", or similar expressions, and statements related to matters which are not historical facts, are forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Such forward-looking statements, which reflect management's expectations regarding the Company's future growth, results of operations, performance, business prospects and opportunities, are based on certain factors and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking information in this news release include statements regarding the potential of the drilling results disclosed in this news release, and whether current interpretations of drilling results will be confirmed by future work.
Forward-looking statements are based on expectations and reasonable assumptions by management as of the date of this news release, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied herein, including the results of any future drilling campaigns which may differ from the results expected by management, changes in the Company's exploration plans, commodity prices, supply and demand, the fact that mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability, the Company's requirements for additional capital, and general economic and market conditions. There can be no assurance that actual results will be consistent with any forward-looking statements included herein. Readers are cautioned that all forward-looking statements in this news release are made as of the date of this news release. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements in this news release to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the date of this news release, except as required by applicable securities laws.
To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/209808