Arian Silver (LON:AGQ), the mining group working on projects in Mexico’s silver belt, has published a revised mineral resource estimate for its 100% owned San Jose property in Zacatecas State. The upgrade, which was produced in line with Canada’s (NI) 43-101 code, is Arian’s first re-assessment since August 2008. Among the highlights is an 86% increase in resource tonnage along the main San Jose Vein (SJV), together with a 10% higher average silver grade, a 105% increase in contained silver, and now puts 34% of gross silver mineral content in the ‘indicated’ category.

The latest mineral resource estimates are based on the results of 152 drill holes from Arian’s Phase-1, 2 and 3 exploration work. The company said that mineralisation remains completely open along the western strike and to depth. A fourth phase of drilling is currently underway with five holes for 1,745 metres completed so far.

The in-situ resources comprise 8 million gross tonnes in the indicated mineral resource category, containing 30.03 million ounces of silver, 69.9 million pounds of lead and 126.6 million pounds of zinc. The average grades come in at 117 grams per ton (g/t) of silver, 0.40% lead and 0.72% zinc. In the ‘inferred’ mineral resources category, there are 17 million gross tonnes, containing 58.42 million ounces of silver, 140.1 million pounds of lead, and 291.1 million pounds of zinc at an average grade of 107 g/t silver, 0.37% lead and 0.78% zinc.

Jim Williams, Arian’s chief executive, said: “Today’s updated mineral resource confirms the potential for large scale silver mining at San Jose. Overall contained silver has increased by over 100% from the company's resource estimates from August 2008, and with some 34% of the resource now in the indicated category. As previously announced there are several wide intercepts of high grade silver and base metal mineralization within the existing SJV resource envelope, which remain to be fully quantified. Almost 3 kilometres of westerly SJV strike and over 2 kilometres of strike to the east remain to be drilled and we still have a number of additional targets to drill within the property. For example, a second vein to the south, the Bety Vein, is parallel with the SJV and surface samples have returned grades of up to 500 g/t of silver. We believe this vein also has potential to contain…

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