Headline: Orko Silver Provides Year End Summary and Update for 2008
Symbol: OK
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Dec. 21, 2007) - Orko Silver Corp. (TSX VENTURE:OK) - The Company wishes to provide a year end summary and update of activities planned for 2008.
Calendar Year 2007 included a milestone event for Orko Silver with the discovery of the Martha Vein in Hole 77 announced on March 27th, 2007. The Company also managed to double the number of rigs drilling at its projects from 2 to 4. We also released two NI 43-101 compliant resource estimates during 2007. The most recent of which increased our resource at La Preciosa by 86% to 73.1 Million Silver-equivalent ounces of contained metal. The independently verified estimate, announced on October 1st, 2007, concluded that work to date on the property had outlined an estimated Inferred Resource of 10.36 million tonnes grading 0.328 g/t Au and 200.0 g/t Ag at a cut-off grade of 100 g/t for a Silver-Equivalent grade of 219.0 g/t. Silver-equivalent for the purposes of this resource estimate was defined as silver grade plus 60 times gold grade. Metallurgical recoveries and net smelter returns were assumed to be 100%.
The October 1st, 2007 resource estimate was based on data that included 120 holes drilled by Orko Silver at La Preciosa. To further our objective of increasing the resource at La Preciosa, we have since completed hole 167 and deepened another 8 previously drilled holes to further test the Martha Vein.
During Calendar Year 2007, Orko Silver managed to drill over 35,500 metres at La Preciosa bringing the total drilled at La Preciosa to date to over 73,000 metres. Orko Silver also completed an 8 hole program comprising of over 5300 metres of drilling at its contiguous San Juan Project, a joint venture with Silver Standard Resources Inc.
The Company has now completed its drill program for Calendar Year 2007 with all 4 drill rigs currently undergoing yearly maintenance overhauls. Two of the rigs will resume drilling in the first week of January with the other 2 to follow in the second week of the month. The geological team at La Preciosa will continue to work into next year with the usual holiday season breaks with a goal towards mobilizing to full capacity during the first week of January 2008.
The Company remains extremely optimistic about its future prospects and its progress at La Preciosa as it awaits assay results from drilling completed during 2007. For 2008, we intend to vigorously continue our drilling program at La Preciosa with a focus towards expanding our resource based on the Martha Vein and other drill targets. The Company also began the interpretation of geophysical data recently received on its contiguous Santa Monica Project, a joint venture with Goldcorp, Inc. The Company hopes to begin a drill program at Santa Monica in the New Year.