Aussie-listed silver miner Black Mountain Resources, which operates in Montana and Idaho in the USA, has started trading on London's AIM as it seeks to broaden its international base prior to accelerating the company's growth strategy.
The company is already close to starting production, having picked up a 70% stake in three projects in parts of the USA which will conjure up images of old Wild West films. The Conjecture Project in Idaho, and the Tabor and New Departure projects, both in Montana, all have extensive history of exploration, development and mining undertaken by previous owners, and diamond drilling programmes are already underway at the New Departure and Conjecture projects. Black Mountain hopes to have both projects producing by the end of this year.
The company has yet to have a JORC (Joint Ore Resources and Reserves Committee) assessment done on its assets, but previous non-JORC assessments have indicated the areas possess 14.5m ounces of silver with an average grade in excess of 600 grams per tonne.
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Historically, the Conjecture mine has produced more than 80,000 ounces of silver at more than 220g/t going back over 100 years with no significant activity since the 1970s.
The AU$16m-valued Aussie company is not raising any fresh capital through its AIM flotation, being debt free and with some AU$3.8m in cash in the company coffers.
The strategy is to start producing silver as quickly as possible to generate "robust" cash flows and operating margins. The drilling programme will delineate JORC resources and, hopefully, identify new resources on historically untested ground in the project areas.
JH
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