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Dear Fellow Investor,
Sometimes an old story made new again is the best story of all.
Such seems to be the case with Prophecy Development’s (PCY.TO; PRPCF.OTCQX) Pulacayo deposit “re-discovery.”
Pulacayo is indeed an old story: a high grade silver mine in Bolivia discovered in 1547, re-discovered for the first time in 1833, and which last ceased production in 1957 after having produced some 600 million ounces of silver.
With that kind of a back story, you can understand why a previous company spent over C$28 million drilling the project from 2005 to 2012. Fortunately for us, that former operator was forced to sell Pulacayo to Prophecy in 2015 when the silver price bottomed out.
While the previous operator was eager to sell the asset, get out of the silver market and move into the cannabis business, Prophecy was looking to the future. And the company saw a potentially world-class silver mine in front of it.
And when you look at the project — its size, grades and potential to grow — it’s easy to see why.
An Open-Pit With Underground Grades?
Prophecy immediately saw a tremendous opportunity that the previous operators had completely overlooked.
You see, the other company had drilled a small area of the known mineralization — only about 30% of the known strike length. Then they focused on going deep, with the idea of developing an underground project, exploiting the higher grades and then going back to drilling the rest of the strike length once they got some money in the bank.
Not a bad plan if you don’t have the money or the market to go big. And it was an understandable approach when you consider that Pulacayo boasted rich grades, as much as 500 g/t, at depth.
Plus, the mineralization went deep — drilling had proven that it extended as deep as 1,000 meters in places.
But here’s where Prophecy, and its entrepreneurial CEO John Lee, brought their vision into play.
You see, while there were indeed very high grades at depth, the Pulacayo target also featured consistent grades of about 100 g/t silver right up to the surface. So instead of focusing on going deep for higher grades, Prophecy immediately saw the potential for a low-cost, open-pit mining scenario.
And when you take that approach, not only do the mining costs fall, but the resource size rises. And in this case, considerably.
Prophecy%20drilled%20cross%20section.jpg)
As you can see from this cross section, showing only one kilometer of the proven three-kilometer strike length of the target, the greenish-yellow mineralization blocks that denote about 200 g/t grades extend to very shallow depths.
Of course, you can also see the ultimate potential, as the very high grades approaching 500 g/t, noted by the deeper red colors, goes on and on to depth.
Also note the size of the proposed open pit in the following graphic — extending nearly a kilometer in length. We are truly talking elephant country here.
And that fact is proven by another legendary deposit...one of world’s biggest silver mines...in the same region.
%20Pulacayo%20open%20pit.jpg)
Another Example Of Re-Discovery That Reaped Giant Rewards
You don’t have to look far to see another example of how re-imagining an historic project can spin out fortunes.
Just about 100 kilometers to the southwest in the same Potosi district of Bolivia, you’ll find San Cristobal, currently the world’s third largest active silver mine, controlled by Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation.
Still boasting about 450 million ounces in silver reserves, San Cristobal produces over 20 million ounces of silver every year, plus lots of zinc and lead.
But it wasn’t always that big. In the early 1900s, it was a small-scale, high-grade underground operation being exploited by locals. Then, in 1993, mining entrepreneur Tom Kaplan acquired the historic concession and transformed it into an open-pit operation before selling it to Sumitomo.
It’s no exaggeration to say that fortunes were made as this historic project was reimagined and brought back into modern-world production.
This is the very same path that Prophecy and its talented management team are envisioning for the Pulacayo project, perfectly situated in the very heart of the legendary Potosi silver district.
%20Potosi%20Premier%20Silver%20Address.jpg)
Prophecy’s Pulacayo project is located in the heart of the rich Potosi silver district, nestled amongst world-class silver mines.
Pulacayo: Successor To San Cristobal?
Remember that C$28 million of drilling by the previous operator at Pulacayo? It focused on a strike length of about 1,000 meters by about 300 meters in depth.
The result was an historic resource of about 70 million ounces of silver, at an average grade of 100 g/t silver, 1.5% zince and 0.8% lead. (Note: This is an historic resource calculated by the previous company’s contractors and is not 43-101 compliant. Thus, it should not be relied upon.)
The former operator also discovered a satellite silver deposit just seven kilometers to the north, and it was no small potatoes itself: The “Paca” open-pittable resource boasts 20 million inferred silver ounces at an average grade of 257 g/t silver. (Again, this is a non-compliant historic resource and should not be relied upon.)
Add the two historic resources and you get about 90 million ounces. That’s certainly a great start, and Prophecy is setting to work to not only confirm it to current standards, but also with a goal of expanding it significantly.
Consider that historic records by Hochschild mining demonstrated a three-kilometer strike length for the Pulacayo Tajo vein system, and a depth past 1,000 meters in some spots.
Prophecy completed a C$2.6 million financing in September, and just announced a proposed C$4 million financing to fill its coffers and prepare for a major drill program at Pulacayo.
The plan: wide step-out drilling with a goal of expanding the strike of the project to the extent of the previous production — fully 3,000 meters. Not only that, but the company is planning its drill program to a depth of 600 meters. Taken together and if successful, this could roughly triple the strike length and double the resource depth...obviously multiplying the current resource.
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The Opportunity...
Prophecy’s recent financings, all subscribed to by major institutions, have bolstered the treasury and prepared the company for its aggressive exploration plans.
Consider that the historic resource at Pulacayo, as large as it is, covers only one-third of the strike length of the historically producing project. There’s big news ahead if Prophecy’s drilling uncovers only a fraction of the silver they feel is waiting to be confirmed.
Consider that we’re in a confirmed gold bull market. Consider that silver typically leverages the gains in gold. And consider that silver stocks are known to multiply the gains in silver.
Add it all up, and you see that few options, if any, offer the kind of upside potential as junior silver stocks in a gold bull market.
And with Prophecy Development about to put millions of dollars into the ground drilling off a massive, historic silver deposit — there may be no better opportunity than this.
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To Learn More About
Prophecy Development’s
Pulacayo Project
or visit
www.prophecydev.com
The Pulacayo Mine:
A Glittering History
Silver mining at Pulacayo began around AD 1545, during the Spanish colonial period. However, there are no recorded production details from this era, and the first work formally recorded was carried out in 1833. Revenue from the mine funded the first railway line in Bolivia, which connected Pulacayo to the port of Antofagasta, Chile in 1888. In 1891, reported annual silver production reached 5.7 million ounces. Mining operations at Pulacayo at that time were the second largest in Bolivia. Work continued through the intervening years until the mine was closed in 1959 due to a lack of exploration to define new reserves and rising costs.
The total output from the Pulacayo mine during this period, as estimated by the National Geological and Mineral Service of Bolivia (SERGEOTECHMIN), was 678 million ounces of silver, 200,000 tons of zinc, and 200,000 tons of lead. Production at Pulacayo was predominantly derived from Veta Tajo (the Tajo vein system), which had been defined along a strike length of 3 kilometers and to a depth of more than 1,000 meters.
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