Southern Silver drills 24.8 metres averaging 124 g/t silver at Cerro Las Minitas

Southern Silver Exploration Corp. (CVE:SSV) Monday reported that new assays from 2011 drilling have identified silver-enriched high-grade polymetallic mineralization in two separate target areas on the Cerro Las Minitas project, in Mexico.
Shares were up eight percent to $0.13 Monday morning.
The Cerro Las Minitas property comprises 18 concessions that total 15,125 hectares and an approximate 25 kilometre lineal strike length. The property is located roughly 70 kilometres northeast of the city of Durango, Mexico.
At the El Sol zone within Cerro Las Minitas, drill testing returned a 24.8 metre interval averaging 124 grams per tonne (g/t) silver, 1.9 percent lead and 2.1 percent zinc (239 g/t silver equivalent), which included a 2.8 metre interval averaging 404 g/t silver and 1.4 percent lead and 2.5 percent zinc (509 g/t silver equivalent) from drill hole CLM11-027.
The El Sol zone is an adjacent and sub-parallel mineralized structure located approximately 125 metres to the northeast of the new Blind zone discovery. A second hole, CLM11-029, also returned strongly anomalous polymetallic mineralization.
Drill hole CLM11-027 tested both the El Sol and Blind zone structures and returned a near-surface mineralized intercept from the El Sol zone and two intercepts deeper in the Blind zone.
The El Sol intercept occurs along strike from previously reported mineralization in drill holes CLM11-006 (7.8 metres of 221 g/t silver, 6.2 percent lead and 2.1 percent zinc) and CLM11-015 (1.3 metres of 165 g/t silver, 6.2 percent lead, 2.4 percent zinc).
The El Sol zone has now been tested over a 250 metre strike-length, to depths of up to 150 metres and remains open in all directions, Southern Silver said.
At the Blind Zone, drilling continues to identify multiple intervals of high-grade silver-enriched polymetallic mineralization, the company said, extending both the strike length and the depth of the presently known mineralized zone.
Highlights from drill holes which tested the Blind zone include an additional 3.5 metre interval averaging 146 g/t silver, 6.4 percent lead and 3.5 percent zinc (417 g/t silver equivalent) from deeper in hole CLM11-027; a 1.4 metre interval averaging 528 g/t silver, 10.5 percent lead and 1.3 percent zinc (847 g/t silver equivalent) from drill hole CLM11-022; and a 1.5 metre interval averaging 146 g/t silver, 4.7 percent lead and 7.8 percent zinc (490 g/t silver equivalent) from drill hole CLM11-028.
Drilling has now tested the Blind zone for over 600 metres strike-length and for over 300 metres depth, Southern Silver said, with the area remaining open in all directions.
In terms of its 2012 exploration program, Southern Silver said diamond drilling on the property with two core rigs resumed in January. One drill rig remains dedicated to the continued delineation of mineralization in the Blind and El Sol zones.
The second drill is testing specific occurrences located within the area of historic mining and several targets derived from the recently-completed surface sampling and IP geophysical program. Multiple geological and geophysical targets remain to be tested and fully delineated within this part of the property, Southern Silver added.
Twenty-nine drill holes totaling around 7,400 metres were completed on the project in 2011. An additional 2,068 metres in eight drill holes have been completed to date in 2012.
Assays from these drill holes are pending, the company said.
The company has scheduled 20,000 metres of core drilling in 2012, with the aim of completing a NI 43-101 compliant resource on these first set of targets by the fourth quarter.
This will be the initial milestone toward the company's goal of delineating a larger, multi-million tonne, high-grade, silver-enriched polymetallic resource on the project.
Southern Silver Exploration's current projects include the silver-lead-zinc Cerro Las Mintas project and the copper-gold-silver Minas de Ameca in Mexico,  as well as the porphyry copper-molybdenum Dragoon project in Arizona and the gold-silver-copper Oro project in New Mexico.