SS1 assays reveal antimony potential in old drill holes
Our 2024 Small Cap Pick of the Year Sun Silver (ASX:SS1) is undertaking a large-scale re-assay program to see if there is any antimony over its giant silver project in Nevada, USA.
Today, the assay results for two old drill holes MR059 and MR063 came back.
The standout result from these first batch of assays comes from hole MR059 which had 30.69m at 0.11% Sb from 186.02m including 1.1m at 0.48% Sb.
SS1 has a 480 million ounces of silver equivalent JORC resource in Nevada, USA.
Right now it is re-assaying old drill cores that were only tested for silver and gold, to see if they contain any antimony.
Antimony is a critical mineral for various military applications including as a hardening agent for ammunition.
And there is no domestic supply within the US.
SS1’s goal is to define an antimony resource over its project.
Previously, the only antimony resource in the US was for a company called Perpetua Resource, which recently raised US$425M (upsized from US$325M) to bring its gold-silver-antimony project online.
Perpetua Resources has had previous funding from the US Department of Defence.
This is what we have wanted to see from SS1’s antimony re-assay program:
The result today that shows from hole MR059 that there is potentially antimony in the long strike section of the project:
SS1 will need to continue to evaluate its historical drill holes to build up a resource… and hopefully secure some funding from the US Government to do so.
On that note, the company has today also finalised a white paper for submission to the DoD which outlines the potential for SS1’s project to serve as a domestic source of antimony.
This whitepaper submission will target funding for SS1’s project under the various US incentive schemes for critical minerals.
In the US, the government has proposed the “2025 Budget Reconciliation Bill” which includes ~US$2.5BN in funding support for U.S production of critical minerals.
There is also ~US$500M allocated to the Department Of Defence aimed at developing critical minerals supply chains.
That bill is expected to pass in July.
We are hopeful that once SS1 submits its whitepaper application to the US Government that it will be considered for funding (no guarantees though).
What’s next for SS1 on the antimony project?
Objective #3: Define an antimony resource
We want to see SS1 define an antimony resource over its project. SS1 has hired Holland & Knight to help apply for government support from the Department of Defence.
Milestones
🔄 Re-log and re-assay remaining historical drill cores
🔲 US Government Funding
🔲 Publish antimony resource
