Tinka Increases Ayawilca Zinc Resource Estimate

Explorer and developer Tinka Resources (TSXV:TK) has expanded the zinc resource at its flagship Ayawilca project in Peru.

In a Monday (November 26) release, the company explained that it had updated the project’s mineral resource estimate, with more mineralization now classed as indicated instead of inferred.

The update is a result of the company’s 2018 20,000m drill program at the project, which consists of two distinct zones (Zinc and Tin) and is located 200km northeast of Lima in the Pasco department of Peru.

Tinka reported Ayawilca’s Zinc zone now holds 11.7 million tonnes grading 6.9 percent zinc, 0.16 percent lead, 84 grams per tonne (g/t) of indium and 15 g/t of silver — all in the indicated category.

Under the updated estimate, the Zinc zone holds 1.8 billion pounds of zinc, 983 tonnes of indium, 5.8 million ounces of silver and 42 million pounds of lead. Tinka said the Zinc zone also holds another 5.6 billion pounds of zinc, 3,003 tonnes of indium, 25.2 million ounces of silver and 230 million pounds of lead in the inferred category.

The new estimate is a significant improvement on the last mineral resource estimate released in November 2017, which was exclusively inferred.

President and CEO of Tinka, Dr. Graham Carman boasted that “the Ayawilca deposit now represents one of the largest zinc resources held in a non-producing resources company,” adding that the indicated zinc resources was 24 percent of Ayawilca’s total zinc inventory.

“Zinc resources were able to be partially upgraded to Indicated in those areas due to infill drilling at West and South Ayawilca in 2018,” he said.

“In addition, the Tin zone resource has increased by 38 percent and now contains over 200 million pounds of tin. The updated Tin zone resource is believed to be the largest undeveloped tin resource outside of a producing camp in Peru,” said Carman.

The Tin zone also includes 67 million pounds of copper, also in the inferred category.

Next on the agenda for the company is completing the project’s maiden preliminary economic assessment, which Carman said was due in the first half of 2019.

“Additional potential still exists for resource growth at Ayawilca, with additional step-out and deeper exploration drilling planned for 2019. The company’s work programs are fully funded into the foreseeable future, with C$13 million in cash and no debt as at the end of September 2018.”

On the Toronto Venture Exchange, Tinka’s value fell by 1.39 percent on Monday to C$0.35, but is up more than 10 percent since the start of November.

Image courtesy of Tinka Resources.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Scott Tibballs, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.