BKB hits 1,169g/t silver grades from extensional hole at US silver project

Published 04-JUN-2026 10:35 A.M.

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Our 2025 Small Cap Pick of the Year, Black Bear Minerals (ASX: BKB), just hit silver grades of up to 1,169g/t silver from its US silver project…

…OUTSIDE of the current 17.6M ounce non-JORC resource area.

(source)

Today's drilling results come a few days after BKB announced a non-binding Letter of Support from Export Finance Australia (the Australian government's export credit agency) to help fund the "rapid restart" of its project.

We unpacked all of that here in our article earlier in the week: Australian Government funding USA mining projects? All hands on deck for this urgent national security issue.

BKB’s project produced around 35.2Moz of silver at an average 521g/t between 1883 and 1942.

Then as early as 2012-2013 was producing silver again until

Now, BKB owns 100% of the project and is drilling to extend the existing non-JORC resource which will ultimately become the base for bringing the project back into production (with silver prices above US$70 per ounce).

The reason we like BKB’s project is because it already has A$150M of existing on-site infrastructure, including:

plant + refinery (built 2011-2012) A modern
A 24,000 sq. ft. warehouse
An assay lab
Existing power lines + an on-site substation
Full water rights
160km of existing underground workings
Four production shafts

(source)

So whatever resource BKB is able to define should be able to be brought into production a lot quicker relative to other silver projects.

Hopefully at a much lower cost the infrastructure doesn’t need to be built from scratch AND BKB’s resource grade is 289g/t (which is very high for silver projects globally).

For context $14BN First Majestic's La Encantada on the same Sierra Madre belt (but in Mexico) operates at around 208g/t.

(source)

More on today’s drill result:

The standout hole today hit 8.8m at 307g/t silver (and a bunch of base metals):

(source)

The main takeaway for us was that the hit came from outside of the projects existing resource footprint - which is a good indicator BKB could increase the size of its resource post its drilling program:

(source)

BKB also reported a result hitting mineralisation to the southwest of the deposit (albeit a very thin intercept) - 0.5m @ 140g/t silver at the bottom of the hole.

So there is still potential for BKB to extend the resource across the ~4km of strike the project sits across:

(source)

The current resource sits across ~4km of strike that is largely untested, with known mineralisation - with this current round of drilling, we are hoping to see that resource grow.

BKB is targeting a maiden JORC resource on the silver project in 2026.

(source)