(Kitco News) Blackrock Silver has traced high-grade mineralization another 600 meters northwest along the Denver vein system at its Tonopah West project in Nevada, as the company works through permits for an exploration decline it aims to start in 2027.
President and CEO Andrew Pollard spoke with Kitco Mining on Sept. 23 at the 2026 Precious Metals Summit in Beaver Creek, the same morning Blackrock released the results. He called it the company’s most ambitious step-out campaign since its original discovery in 2020.
“Not many people attempt five, six, seven, 800-meter step-outs on an epithermal vein zone that’s blind and buried,” he said.
Four holes confirmed the extension. The best, TXC26-200, returned 0.49 meters grading 1,096 grams per tonne silver equivalent, made up of 797 g/t silver and 2.77 g/t gold. Blackrock estimates true thickness at 40% to 65% of the drilled intervals. The company also said the Denver veins appear to be widening toward a newly identified intrusive complex, which it now treats as a priority target.
Pollard said the extension will “give us a little more data in terms of what’s in the lab because it all depends on the grade and obviously the thickness.” Assays for 12 holes are pending, and two core rigs are still drilling.
His team is not easily impressed, according to Pollard, noting, “My geologists don’t get excited anymore. They’ve got a lot of gray hair,” but concluded, “this one’s got them clamoring a little bit.”
Not all of the drilling has gone smoothly. In the same release, Blackrock said its eastern expansion program has been more challenging, with high-grade mineralization bounded by two fault systems and difficult to trace beyond them.
If the northwest zone connects, Pollard said it would lengthen the mine life rather than change the early years of the mine plan, which focus on shallower mineralization in a different area. “This isn’t a standalone satellite deposit that would require its own standalone development,” he said.
The March preliminary economic assessment outlined average production of about 7 million ounces a year over a mine life of more than 11 years, up from 7.5 years in the company’s first study in 2024. Pollard said the PEA used a base case of $31 silver and returned a 28% after-tax internal rate of return, with initial capital of $190 million.
Permitting is the near-term focus. Tonopah West sits entirely on patented claims, so state and county agencies issue the permits rather than federal regulators. “If we were to get in the FAST-41 program, it would actually slow us down,” Pollard said, referring to the federal program meant to speed up major project reviews.
Blackrock holds the first of three key permits, for air quality. The longest-lead permit covers water pollution control, and Pollard said the company is near the end of its environmental data collection after about two years of hydrology work. The third is an approval of engineering designs. He agreed the process would take about six months and said Blackrock is already seeking proposals from underground contractors.
The decline, test mining and underground drilling should cost about $30 million, Pollard said, and those costs would come out of the PEA’s capital estimate. The plan calls for a bulk sample of at least 50,000 tons, which he said would grade about 450 g/t silver equivalent. Material beyond what is needed for metallurgical testing could be sold through toll milling or offtake agreements.
Underground drilling on 10-meter centers is meant to convert resources to reserves, and Blackrock plans to skip a prefeasibility study. “We don’t need a PFS to tell me this is something that’s going to get developed,” Pollard said. He expects the underground work in 2028 to feed a feasibility study, with construction starting around the end of 2029.
Pollard sees permits as the main driver of value. “The biggest risk in mining is time,” he said. “It’s not geology, it’s not metallurgy, it’s time.”
Blackrock received conditional approval on Sept. 14 to move its listing from the TSX Venture Exchange to the Toronto Stock Exchange, and Pollard said he expects trading there to start in October under the same BRC ticker. He described this year as one of building out the company ahead of development. “We’re growing our platform in terms of our board,” he said. The day after the interview, Blackrock appointed Christine West, a former chief financial officer of Endeavour Silver, as an independent director.
On Sept. 28, the company agreed to acquire the Tonopah East property, 146 unpatented claims along the eastern margin of the Fraction caldera, from a Gold Royalty subsidiary for about US$48,000 in cash and a 3% net smelter return royalty, with closing expected around Sept. 30. The ground adds 12.1 square kilometers to Blackrock’s holdings in the district, an increase of about 45%, and sits about five kilometers from its planned mill.
The next results will come from the 12 pending holes, and the company is considering three more surface core holes to follow up the northwest zone. “We want the green light to get going, and then once we get going, we’re not going to stop,” Pollard said.
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