BKB hits gold at its primary silver project in the US - JORC resource next
Our 2025 Small Cap Pick of the Year Black Bear Minerals (ASX: BKB | OTCQX: BKBMF) just assayed gold in historic data at its silver project in Texas, USA.
BKB’s project previously produced ~35.2M ounces at 521g/t silver between 1883 and 1942.
Right now the project has a 17.6Moz @ 289g/t silver foreign (non-JORC) resource estimate, which BKB is aiming to convert to JORC standards.
When BKB first acquired the asset we already knew about the historic gold potential of the project.
(source)
Despite that gold potential, BKB’s project had never been drilled/assayed for gold systematically.
Now BKB has found historic records which show previous sniffs of gold from old underground drilling data (amongst the silver, from 1982).
(source)
This gold could end up being a nice credit to go with BKB’s high grade silver (JORC resource conversion pending).
Especially given the current foreign resource only estimates silver.
We note BKB also flagged gold hits outside the resource in the project's southwest corner from the prior owner back in 2017 which included a result of 0.6m at 9.6g/t gold.
This is the type of hit we would want to see followed up.
The silver grades keep ticking up on the historic re-assays too
Alongside the gold news, BKB also confirmed silver grades are increasing relative to historic results too and this has been seen right across the mineralised area.
One of the holes re-assayed came back with 16% more contained silver than the historic assay:
(source)
BKB's comparison charts suggest the historic assays have slightly overstated the lower grades, but understated the higher grades.
(source)
BKB also had news out on its gold project in Nevada
BKB's other US precious metals asset is the Independence gold project in Nevada, home to a 2.2M ounce gold equivalent resource estimate.
This sits right next door to Nevada Gold Mines' giant Phoenix complex - operated in a JV between $94BN Barrick and $174BN Newmont.
A recent scoping study on just a ~420k ounce slice of that resource estimate delivered a post-tax NPV of ~A$511M.
Today BKB confirmed it has completed its first ever rock chip sampling at Modoc, around 2km west of Independence.
50 samples were collected, with results due within six weeks.
BKB reckons the ground hosts the same rock units as the Buffalo Valley silver-gold-copper mine (which produced from 1924 to 1990).
(source)
What's next for BKB?
🔄 Gold project in Nevada
Next we want to see BKB deliver:
- ✅ COMPLETED: Mining study phases on a heap-leach development
- ✅ COMPLETED: Scoping study
- 🔲 DUE NEXT: Metallurgical testwork
- 🔲 DUE AFTER: Revised Scoping Study on the full 1.2M ounce shallow resource estimate
- 🔲 DUE LATER: Pre-Feasibility Study
🔄 Silver project in Texas, USA
Over the next 6 months the main things we want to see are the following:
- 🔄 Rapid restart study (CAPEX estimate)
- 🔄 Drill program - 11 diamond holes
- 🔄 Multi-element gold/zinc/lead assays
- 🔲 Maiden JORC resource
- 🔲 Scoping Study starts
- 🔲 Restart Final Investment Decision (FID)
