Eloro Resources Ltd.’s (TSXV:ELO) Iska Iska property could contain more than one billion tonnes at four to eight ounces silver equivalent grade, writes Bob Moriarty
Bob Moriarty | February 16, 2021 | SmallCapPower: Potosi in Bolivia is sometimes referred to as the GOAT of silver mining. That is, the Greatest Of All Time for silver. Discovered in 1545, Cerro Rico produced just over 2 billion ounces of silver at a cost of 8 million lives of slaves. If you held two and a half 100 ounce silver bars that came from Potosi, that would have cost the life of one slave. The silver from Potosi funded the Spanish Empire for two and a half centuries. The silver went to Manila before being traded to China for tea, Chinaware and silk. The opium wars weren’t really about opium; they were about the silver riches from Potosi. Spain mined it and traded to China. China had it. Britain wanted it.
(The following is an article originally published on 321gold.com on January 28, 2021)
It appears Eloro Resources Ltd. (TSXV:ELO) is on track to pushing Potosi aside as the silver GOAT. At least if you are willing to consider silver equivalent ounces. Quinton Hennigh has done several interviews and believes Eloro could amount to between 500 million tonnes to 1 billion tonnes at four to eight ounces silver eq grade. Well, yesterday Eloro came out with brilliant assays that support Quinton’s belief and actually suggests he may have underestimated the potential. Now it seems to imply over 1 billion tonnes. If the four ounces held, Eloro would be the biggest silver story in history. Certainly the biggest silver story in the last 50 years.
Eloro has one of the strongest mining and geology teams in Peru or Bolivia. Dr. Osvaldo Acre runs the Bolivian operation. He is the world’s leading expert on Potosi type systems and literally has written the book about them. Dr. Bill Pearson who I first met when he was leading the geological team at Desert Sun fifteen years ago is the senior technical advisor. Tom Larsen is the CEO and drives the company. Quinton Hennigh also serves as a technical and business advisor.
Eloro has an option on 99% of the Iska Iska property in the very southern bit of Bolivia near Potosi. They are paying the owner 500,000 shares and US$10 million at some point in the next four years. There is no NSR. The owner retains a 1% interest in the project.
If you look at the center of the concession outlined in blue, clearly there is a caldera. While the geological team has been focused on identifying and drilling breccia pipes with great success, they have also identified a series of more potential pipes to the east and south.
I have never seen any company move a project forward and prove their theory so quickly. In the results released on January 26th one hole measured 129.6 grams silver equivalent over 257.5 meters from the newly discovered Santa Barbara breccia pipe. The Santa Barbara pipe was discovered and announced in the November press release. Through surface mapping and Aster satellite data located yet another breccia pipe, this one named the Central Breccia Pipe measuring 700 meters by 400 meters. This latest set of assays discusses drilling into both the Santa Barbara pipe and the Central Breccis pipe. Those results have not been released yet. Those include hole DHK-02 intercepting 475 meters below surface in the Central Breccia pipe.
This is an interesting system because it has a variety of minerals of economic value including almost an ounce of silver, some gold, lead, zinc, tin, bismuth, indium and cadmium. Quinton Hennigh did up a spreadsheet with the values from the 257-meter hole and it showed a total in the ground value of $103 US per tonne. That would make 500 million tonnes worth somewhere in the $50 billion USD range.
Bill Person and Osvaldo are punching holes in the pipes they have identified so far. I suspect that if they stepped back a foot or so and just stared at the maps of the project I have showed above they would realize there appears to be a ring of different breccia pipes around the edge of the caldera. Osvaldo talks about the possibility of the Santa Barbara and Central Breccia pipes merging deeper in the system. You have a series of pipes, why not start drilling vertical holes right in the center of the caldera? I’m not sure knowing the exact dimension of any of the pipes is important. This is a BFD system and all the company needs to attract bidding from every major in the world is to show an obvious billion tonnes of $100 rock. Don’t drill for the pipes, drill for the feeders.
Eloro is going to be bought out in short order, I’m talking 6-12 months. They are fully financed for a planned 14,000 meters of drilling both from surface and from underground. Due to drill limits, the underground drilling is pretty much limited to 350 meters but they can drill 1.2 km holes from the surface.
Today’s price action gives the company about a $190 million CAD market cap. The price is going to be up and down like a bride’s nightie but in six months it’s going to be a hell of a lot higher.
The shares were as cheap as $2.10 a week ago and hit $4.11 on Wednesday the 27th for almost double in a week. While they were cheap a week ago, they got expensive in a hurry. There is a backdoor way to buy shares that have not yet exploded higher yet. Cartier Iron, a gold company run by Tom Larsen, CEO of ELO, happens to own 2.09 million shares of ELO. At today’s highest price for Eloro, the shares held by Cartier were worth more than their entire market cap. The shares were 25% higher ten days ago. That situation won’t last for long.
Eloro and Cartier are both advertisers. I have bought shares in the open market and participated in private placements for both companies. As always do your own due diligence.
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