Outcrop Silver Annual Letter to Shareholders
OUTCROP SILVER ANNUAL LETTER TO
SHAREHOLDERS
VANCOUVER, BC
,
Jan. 18, 2023
/CNW/ -
Outcrop Silver & Gold Corporation
(TSXV: OCG)
(OTCQX: OCGSF) (DE: MRG1)
("Outcrop")
is pleased to share an open letter to shareholders
from
Joseph Hebert
, President and Chief Executive Officer.
Dear Fellow Shareholders:
I wanted to specially thank shareholders for their continued support and take the opportunity to
reflect on our progress in 2022 and discuss objectives for an important year ahead.
We are One of the Top Performing Silver Stocks on the TSXV in 2022
2022 has been a volatile year with political instability, high inflation, and wide value swings in many
asset classes. Precious metals had a very mixed performance in 2022, with sizeable fluctuations
seen during the year, reflecting monetary policy tightening, rising interest rates, further economic
weakness, geopolitical tensions and persistently high inflation. The COMEX gold futures contract
closed at
$1,826
per ounce on
December 30, 2022
, down 0.13% for the year, and the COMEX
silver futures contract posted a 2.95% gain and settled at
$24
per ounce on
December 30, 2022
.
As a shareholder, share price is the metric that counts the most. Outcrop made significant share
price gains in 2022, as shown in the chart below:
Outcrop Silver & Gold trailing twelve months trading price & volume ended on December 30, 2022,
compared with gold & silver price (CNW Group/Outcrop Silver & Gold Corporation)
Despite volatility, Outcrop Silver performed strongly and posted an 84.37% gain in 2022 with strong
volume, one of the top junior silver exploration companies on the TSX Venture Exchange. Outcrop
Silver has fared better than many junior resource companies negatively affected by volatility. The
participants in our latest financing (
September 22, 2022
) have seen over one hundred percent gains.
Few other silver-focused peers can show comparable performance to Outcrop Silver over the
trailing twelve months to date.
Outcrop Silver has received continuous coverage from Research Capital, which has recommended a
speculative buy with a forecasted price of
C$0.75
. The Research Capital forecast is an independent
prediction of future value growth for Outcrop Silver.
Advancing a World Class Silver District
We continue to demonstrate with stellar grades in drilling that we have a high-quality discovery at our
flagship
Santa Ana
silver project. Outcrop Silver has completed 325 core holes totaling 55,937
metres. Thirteen high-grade shoots have been identified to date. On 6,000 hectares of titled and fully
permitted mineral concessions, drilling and surface and underground exploration demonstrate near
continuous prospective vein zones extending from north of the Royal Santa Mines, 18 kilometres
southwest to the Frias Mine and then another 15 kilometres to Outcrop Silver's applications further
southwest.
More than 60 kilometres of vein zones are identified across
Santa Ana
. The vein zones are typically
comprised of parallel vein sets over an area two to three kilometres wide. It is inferred that the 60
vein zones provide cumulatively over 150 kilometres of individual veins. This vein footprint rivals
famous silver camps such as
Fresnillo
and
Guanajuato
in
Mexico
.
Santa Ana
silver and gold values measured as weighted average grades of intervals above the
expected compliant resource cut-off of 200 g eq Ag/t fall in the upper 25
th
percentile of grade
worldwide. DH274 drilled in
August 2022
returned a stunning 15,941 g eq Ag/t! These high-grade
drill intercepts will be reflected in the maiden compliant resource estimation underway by Micon
International.
Outcrop Silver has an excellent opportunity to drill its high-grade shoots off at depth. Las Maras
shoot is drilled to over 350 metres, while the average drilled depth for the twelve other shoots is only
170 metres. Low risk definition drilling of open mineralization to depth could add over 100 percent to
existing potential resource volume. Fortunately, veins and mineralization at
Santa Ana
typically
outcrop or sub-crop. This allows target identification through basic surface prospecting and trenching
of mapped veins or veins projected by geophysics or soil grids. Targets are frequently supported by
historic colonial era and artisan mining and kilogram equivalent silver per tonne assays at surface are
common. Eleven near-term additional targets have been identified, with the historic 100% owned
Frias
mine showing underground samples to 10,216 g Ag/t. Locally targets show vein widths of 3.5
metres (4 metres in float boulders). Trench and float samples from these new undrilled targets
assay up to 94 g Au/t and 9,738 g Ag/t.
The Best Team
Our
Colombia
team, management, directors, and consulting support persistently work to add value
to the company. In May, we made an important addition to our management team, hiring
Guillermo
Hernandez
as Vice President of Exploration. Guillermo has over 15 years of exploration in all
aspects of economic geology, coming to Outcrop Silver from
Lundin Gold
, where he worked at Fruta
del Norte. His 3D geologic and grade modeling skills have been invaluable in working with Micon
International, our independent QP, to produce our maiden resource report.
In June, we brought on
Kathy Li
, with 15 years of experience in investor relations as Director of
Investor Relations, coming to Outcrop Silver from Silvercorp. Kathy is adept at putting together
balanced investor and marketing plans and monitoring the value of her programs.
Sunil Sharma
was
brought on as Chief Financial Officer in October and brings 20 years of experience in finance and
accounting with public and private companies, including producers and explorers. Sunil has extensive
experience in budgeting and all aspects of financial reporting and compliance.
The Colombian team is extremely proficient in all technical and supporting roles. The team has built
strong stakeholder relations for
Santa Ana
and tirelessly worked to earn a social license to be able
to conduct continuous exploration and drilling for over 26 months. Examples of Outcrop Silver's
benefits to communities near the project include primary and secondary education programs for
adults, providing material for micro-cap business startups, supplies for urban and rural vegetable
plots, increasing farm productivity, and working with non-profits to provide numerous wheelchairs to
the disabled.
Outcrop Silver Aligns with the Colombian Government:
After much initial reservation about a new administration by junior resource companies, both
Irene
Velez
, Minister of Mines, and Colombian President
Gustavo Petro
have stated in many different
forums that "Our government is not an anti-mining government, but one that wants to ensure socially
and environmentally responsible mining." President Petro has stated that his government "realizes
the benefits exploration and mining bring to opportunity-deprived communities," and would like the
mining sector "to focus on the exploration and development of minerals critical to the energy
transition."
Silver has the highest electrical conductivity of all metals. It is essential in the production of solar
panels and electric vehicles. Silver supply will have to grow to meet demands and will likely be in
supply deficit in the medium term. Silver is a critical energy transition metal that can be supplied by
Santa Ana
.
Outcrop Silver is uniquely and positively aligned with the objectives of the Colombian government
concerning exploration and mining.
Santa Ana
can become a significant, low disturbance footprint,
underground silver producer in
Colombia
. Outcrop Silver has established strong trust and support
from communities near and persons living on the project. Benefits to the community from Outcrop
will grow as the
Santa Ana
project grows.
A Compliant Resource in Q1 2023:
Outcrop Silver has slightly delayed its resource report, but the result will be a better report. We
became aware in December that for Micon International to include
Santa Ana's
excellent preliminary
recovery studies, they would require some additional flotation and concentrate production tests. The
preliminary recovery results are 94% for silver and 96% for gold. Micon would have significantly
reduced resource report recoveries without the additional tests. Outcrop Silver determined that we
could create better shareholder value from the resource estimate if we waited until the additional
metallurgical tests could be conducted. Additional representative samples of mineralized core have
been sent to SGS Labs in
Chile
to conduct the tests.
Outcrop Silver also added a third core rig in December to make the most use of these additional
months. Currently two core rigs are doing deeper shoot delineation to optimize projected volumes,
and the third core rig is focused on the most advanced greenfield targets.
The map below illustrates "resource veins" (those to be used in the Micon resource report) in
comparison to "prospective veins" and targets south of the Royal Santa Ana mines area. The
resource veins are only a small part of prospective veins and targets. Importantly the prospective
veins will show continuity with more detailed work, and individual prospective vein segments likely
represent broader zones of parallel veins occurring within an area 1 to 3 kilometres wide. These
prospective veins which will not be included in the initial resource report represent significant upside
for increasing the resource going forward.
Resource veins contribution with prospective veins for potential future resource increase. (CNW
Group/Outcrop Silver & Gold Corporation)
Looking Forward to 2023
We are entering 2023 with optimism and a clear plan to generate value for our shareholders. Less
than 10% of the potential at
Santa Ana
has been tested. We should have another great year of
drilling, with three core rigs turning continually to drill high-grade mineralization of 13 shoots to depth
and laterally and drilling our best new greenfield targets.
We will finish and report the SGS metallurgy work required by Micon to use optimum metal
recoveries and release a maiden compliant resource in Q1 2023.
2023 will be another pivotal year as we further progress the project. Currently three core rigs are
operating at
Santa Ana
, and a total of 32,600 metres of drilling is planned through
December 2023
.
This level of drilling will significantly expand existing potential resource areas, which will ultimately be
reflected in an upward-revised compliant resource report. Simultaneously aggressive exploration
work will continue identifying new high-quality targets for drilling.
Sincerely
Joseph Hebert
, President and CEO
About Outcrop
Outcrop Silver & Gold is rapidly advancing the
Santa Ana
high-grade silver discovery with ongoing
expansion drilling and an initial resource to be released in the coming months. Outcrop is also
exploring four other gold and silver projects with world-class discovery potential in
Colombia
. These
assets are being advanced by a highly disciplined and seasoned professional team with decades of
experience in Colombia.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Joseph P Hebert
Chief Executive Officer
+1 775 340 0450
www.outcropsilverandgold.com
Kathy Li
Director of Investor Relations
+1 778 783 2818
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as such term is defined in
the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of
this release. Certain information contained herein constitutes "forward-looking information" under
Canadian securities legislation. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use
of forward-looking terminology such as "potential", "we believe", or variations of such words and
phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. Forward-looking
statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such
statements are made and they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other
factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Outcrop
to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or
forward-looking information, including the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals, capital
expenditures and other costs, financing and additional capital requirements, completion of due
diligence, general economic, market and business conditions, new legislation, uncertainties
resulting from potential delays or changes in plans, political uncertainties, and the state of the
securities markets generally. Although management of Outcrop has attempted to identify important
factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking
statements or forward-looking information, other factors may cause results not to be as anticipated,
estimated or estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to
be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in
such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking
statements and forward-looking information. Outcrop will not update any forward-looking
statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except as
required by applicable securities laws.
SOURCE
Outcrop Silver & Gold Corporation
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For further information:
Joseph P Hebert, Chief Executive Officer, +1 775 340 0450,
[email protected], www.outcropsilverandgold.com; Kathy Li, Director of
Investor Relations, +1 778 783 2818, [email protected]
CO: Outcrop Silver & Gold Corporation
CNW 07:00e 18-JAN-23