Silver Standard plans further Pitarrilla drilling

Vancouver-based Silver Standard Resources (TSX-V: SSO) will finish phase III drilling early next year on its La Pitarrilla silver project in northern Mexico's Durango state following positive drilling results to date, the company announced. The company has so far drilled 22 holes totaling nearly 3,100m on the property's Cordon Colorado zone. Silver Standard unveiled results this week from six holes on the property, including silver assays of 124g/t over 75m, 176g/t over 102m and 119g/t over 76m. "These latest results show continuity of thick sequences of silver mineralization to the east of earlier drilling and have encouraged the company to initiate a third phase of drilling to be completed early 2004," the company said. Upcoming drilling, which entails 20 vertical holes measuring 2,500m overall, is designed to provide data to complete a resource calculation in a 300m-long section of Cordon Colorado, Silver Standard said. Phase III drilling will also test four holes in the property's 350m-long Pena Dike zone, which has returned average chip channel samples of 145g/t silver over 36m. The company will also trench and prepare the Javelina Creek zone for drilling during phase III. Silver Standard, which company-wide holds measured resources of 300Moz silver and 1.1Moz gold, has properties in Australia, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, the US and Canada.