Black Bear Minerals Reports Higher Silver Grades at Shafter Project

Black Bear Minerals Reports Higher Silver Grades and Broader Polymetallic Potential at Shafter

Black Bear Minerals (ASX: BKB) has reported stronger silver grades from re-analysis of historic drill core at its Shafter Silver Project in Texas, with one key intercept increasing from 6.7 metres at 266 g/t silver in the historic dataset to 6.7 metres at 408 g/t silver in the new work. According to the ASX announcement, that equates to a 54% increase in contained silver across the interval and adds weight to the company's effort to validate and potentially upgrade the project's current foreign mineral resource estimate.

The update matters because it does more than improve a handful of silver assays. The re-analysis also identified gold, lead and zinc in historic core that had not previously been tested for those elements, suggesting the existing silver-only resource view at Shafter may be incomplete.

For investors tracking advanced US precious metals assets, the announcement points to two linked themes: possible silver grade uplift and possible by-product value from polymetallic mineralisation.

"These are outstanding results, with re-analysis of historic core returning 6.7m at 408g/t silver, a 54% increase in contained silver across the broader interval, and confirming peak grades up to 1,222g/t silver," said Dennis Lindgren, Chief Executive Officer.

Lindgren added that the results support confidence in the "quality, continuity and growth potential" of the Shafter system and provide a basis to expand the historic core re-analysis program.

Key Re-Assay Results From the Shafter Validation Program

In the announcement, Black Bear said initial re-analysis covered historic core from the 1983 SW-series surface diamond drillholes and 2012-series underground diamond drillholes. The company compared new assays against historic intervals from five drillholes and stated that the new work showed an uplift in contained silver in several material intercepts.

What Were the Standout Silver Results?

The standout silver result came from SW5:

• 6.7m at 408 g/t Ag from 9.1m, including 1.2m at 1,222 g/t Ag
• Historic result: 6.7m at 266 g/t Ag from 9.1m, including 1.2m at 900 g/t Ag

Another important validation hole was 201200306:

• 23.8m at 147 g/t Ag from 5.5m, including 10.4m at 231 g/t Ag
• Historic result: 23.8m at 134 g/t Ag from 4.9m, including 10.4m at 208 g/t Ag

The most commercially interesting polymetallic result came from 201200602, which had not historically been assayed for gold, lead or zinc:

• 3.1m at 181 g/t Ag, 0.7 g/t Au, 1.1% Pb and 3.4% Zn from 0m
• Including 1.2m at 167 g/t Ag, 1.5 g/t Au, 1.6% Pb and 4.0% Zn
• Historic result: 3.1m at 134 g/t Ag from 0m

The comparison below captures the main changes reported.

The company also noted that some intercepts widened because adjacent wall rock returned silver grades above the 137 g/t silver cut-off grade used in the foreign mineral resource estimate. That is relevant because it suggests parts of the original resource envelope may not have captured all potentially mineralised material.

Why the Re-Assays Are Coming in Higher

The report outlined two main reasons why the new results may be stronger than the historic assays.

First, Black Bear used four-acid digestion for silver analysis. In simple terms, this is a laboratory method designed to dissolve more of the mineral sample so that a fuller metal reading can be obtained. The historic work used two-acid digestion, which the company said may not have fully dissolved some silver-bearing minerals and may therefore have understated silver grades.

Second, the new programme extended sampling into wall rock outside the original operator-selected intervals. Earlier drilling appears to have focused on visually obvious ore zones. By testing material beyond those boundaries, Black Bear reported that some previously unsampled sections also carry silver grades that may be relevant to future resource work.

That said, the company also stated an important caveat. The new assays were taken from the remaining half-core or quarter-core, not from the exact same physical sample split used historically. As a result, Black Bear said the results should be viewed as a comparison of substantially corresponding intervals, rather than exact one-for-one duplicates.

What the Results Suggest About the Shafter Resource

The current Shafter estimate is a foreign mineral resource estimate prepared under Canadian NI 43-101, not yet a JORC-compliant mineral resource. According to the announcement, the foreign estimate stands at 1.89 million tonnes at 289 g/t silver for 17.57 million ounces of silver, using a 137 g/t Ag cut-off.

Here is the current foreign MRE as reported by the company:

The investment relevance is straightforward. If ongoing validation work continues to return higher gram-metres and broader mineralised widths, the future JORC conversion process may show a different silver inventory from the current foreign estimate. However, whether that happens will depend on additional validation, re-logging, sampling and infill drilling.

The company was careful to state that a competent person has not yet done sufficient work to classify the foreign estimate under the JORC Code 2012. Until that process is completed, there is no assurance the estimate will be reported as a JORC mineral resource.

Is Shafter Starting to Look More Polymetallic Than Silver-Only?

One of the more important aspects of the announcement is that the historic resource framework at Shafter is based only on silver, while the geology appears to contain a broader metal mix.

In the report, Black Bear said the majority of historic samples were analysed only for silver. Its newer multi-element work is now identifying gold, zinc and lead mineralisation in both drilling and previous surface sampling. Furthermore, recent core re-analysis delivered:

• Up to 1.5 g/t gold
• Up to 4.22% zinc
• Up to 1.62% lead

The company also referred to earlier surface sampling, which returned up to 3,100 g/t silver, 4.5% zinc and 6% lead outside the current resource area. This does not change the existing resource estimate, but it does suggest that future technical studies may need to consider value from by-products if continuity, metallurgy and recoveries are confirmed.

For investors, by-product metals can matter in two ways:

1. They may improve the revenue profile per tonne processed
2. They may lower the effective net cost of producing the primary metal, in this case silver

At this stage, the announcement does not claim those benefits have been proven. It states that further metallurgical testwork and broader sampling are needed to understand the extent and continuity of polymetallic mineralisation across the project.

Understanding Gram-Metres and Cut-Off Grades at Shafter

For non-specialist investors, two technical measures in this update are worth understanding.

What Are Gram-Metres?

Gram-metres combine grade and width into a single measure. The calculation is straightforward:

• Grade in g/t × intercept width in metres = gram-metres

For example:

• 6.7m at 408 g/t Ag = 2,734 gram-metres
• 6.7m at 266 g/t Ag = 1,782 gram-metres

This is why the SW5 re-assay matters. The physical intercept length stayed the same, but the amount of silver represented within that interval increased materially.

What Is a Cut-Off Grade?

A cut-off grade is the minimum grade used to decide whether material is included in a resource model. At Shafter, the foreign MRE uses a 137 g/t silver cut-off. If re-analysis shows surrounding rock is above that level, it may mean some material that was previously excluded could potentially fall within future resource modelling.

Key technical point: The announcement suggests that some wall rock intervals around historic ore zones now assay above the 137 g/t Ag cut-off used in the foreign MRE. If that pattern continues across the broader dataset, it may influence future resource boundaries.

Project Context and Infrastructure Remain Central to the Investment Case

Shafter is not an early-stage exploration project. According to the company, it sits on a mineralised trend that spans roughly 4km of strike, with the largely untested 2.4km MacDaniel Trend forming part of current exploration focus.

The geological setting is described in the announcement as manto-style carbonate replacement mineralisation hosted in the Mina Grande Formation. In practical terms, this refers to replacement-style mineralisation that follows favourable sedimentary rock layers and structural pathways, often producing relatively flat to gently dipping ore zones.

Historic production adds further context. The Presidio Mine, which forms part of the same mineral system, produced 35.2 million ounces of silver at an average grade of 521 g/t Ag between 1883 and 1942.

In addition, infrastructure is another reason Shafter draws attention:

• Permitted Merrill-Crowe processing plant and refinery
• Grid-connected power
• Water rights
• Extensive support infrastructure
• More than 160km of historic underground workings

That does not guarantee an economic restart, but it does mean future studies are being assessed in the context of an already developed mining site rather than a greenfield build.

What Black Bear Plans Next

The announcement set out a clear next-step programme tied to resource validation and restart studies. According to Black Bear, the company now intends to:

1. Broaden check analysis across additional historic drill programmes where core is available
2. Extend re-analysis across the full foreign MRE footprint
3. Sample beyond original historic intervals where prior operators were selective
4. Re-log and multi-element sample historic core to better define gold, zinc and lead distribution
5. Conduct limited infill drilling to support a maiden JORC Mineral Resource Estimate
6. Carry out systematic sampling of historic mine workings across about 1km of strike currently excluded from the MRE
7. Update stratigraphic and structural models and test extensions outside the current resource
8. Progress work linked to the Rapid Mine Restart Study

These are the milestones investors are likely to watch most closely. The near-term focus appears to be on whether Black Bear can convert the current foreign estimate into a JORC-compliant resource while also demonstrating that Shafter has stronger silver grades and broader payable metal content than previously recognised.

Why This Update Matters for Investors

The ASX update does not change the formal resource today, but it does affect how the market may view the quality of the historic dataset. Black Bear has reported:

• Higher silver grades in several key validation intervals
• A 54% increase in contained silver in SW5
• New gold, lead and zinc results from historic core that was not previously analysed for those metals
• Signs that some previously unsampled wall rock may sit above the resource cut-off grade

Taken together, those findings support the company's decision to expand the re-analysis programme. If future work confirms the same pattern across a broader sample base, Shafter's silver-only foreign MRE may prove conservative relative to the underlying mineral system.

Black Bear also retains exposure to the Independence Gold Project in Nevada, which the company reports hosts a JORC 2012 Mineral Resource across epithermal and skarn domains. However, the current ASX update is firmly centred on Shafter, where validation, JORC conversion and restart-related technical work now appear to be the key value drivers.

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