Southern Silver confirms near surface extensions, finds new silver target at Cerro Las Minitas

Southern Silver Exploration Corp. (CVE:SSV) said Thursday that drilling at its Cerro Las Minitas project in Durango State, Mexico continues to show near surface extensions of high-grade silver-polymetallic mineralization at the Blind Zone deposit.
The company also said Thursday high-grade silver mineralization was found in a single drill hole located roughly 750 metres northeast of the Blind Zone, along the northern margin of the central intrusive.
Core drilling targeted near surface mineralization in the Blind Zone deposit, and the company said it has confirmed the extensions of the main mineralized structures.
Highlights of the drilling include drill hole 12CLM-061, which returned a 1.3 metre interval grading 382 grams per tonne (g/t) silver, 9.9% lead and 5.1% zinc (799 g/t silver-equivalent) within a broader 10.6 metre zone averaging 76 g/t silver, 1.9% lead and 0.6% zinc (145g/t silver-equivalent).
Additionally, the company highlighted a 1.9 metre interval averaging 130 g/t silver, 2.4% lead and 0.5% zinc (218g/t silver-equivalent) from drill hole 12CLM-060.
Southern Silver said that near surface mineralization was also intersected in drill hole 12CLM-059, which returned 19.1 metres averaging 30 g/t silver, and a 15.8 metre interval averaging 26 g/t silver.
The company said the mineralized intercepts occur within 70 metres of surface.
Southern Silver added that the individual higher grade intercepts continue to demonstrate the internal continuity of mineralized structures that comprise the Blind Zone deposit.
The miner noted that initial modelling of the Blind zone identified three distinct mineralized structures along much of the currently identified 618 metre strike-length of the deposit.
Meanwhile, the company said it discovered a new target with drill hole 12CLM-058, which tested a northwest extension of the La Bocona deposit and returned a 1.3 metre interval grading 466 g/t silver.
The new target area is open along strike for several hundred metres, and the company said that additional drilling is planned to further test and delineate this new zone of mineralization.
Twenty-nine drill holes totaling approximately 8,030 metres were completed on the project in 2011, and Southern Silver said that an additional 7,510 metres in thirty-three drill holes have been completed to date in 2012.
Assays from two drill holes are pending.
The company said it has scheduled 20,000 metres of core drilling in 2012, with the goal of completing a NI 43-101 compliant resource on these first set of targets by the fourth quarter of 2012.
Earlier this month, Southern Silver unveiled more results from the Blind zone, including a 4.2 metre interval averaging 409 g/t silver, 18% lead and 4.0% zinc (1,094 g/t silver equivalent) from drill hole 12CLM-056.
The company also discovered a new zone of gold and copper mineralization at the South Skarn area, located approximately 1.5 kilometres south east of the Blind zone.
Diamond drilling with one drill continues on the Cerro Las Minitas project and is targeting the delineation of mineralization in the Blind and El Sol zones.
Southern Silver's current projects include the silver-lead-zinc Cerro Las Mintas project and the copper-gold-silver Minas de Ameca in Mexico, the porphyry copper-molybdenum Dragoon project in Arizona and the gold-silver-copper Oro project in New Mexico.