Dolly Varden Silver Corp. (DV:TSX.V; DVS:NYSEA; DVQ:FSE) will launch a 2025, four-rig drill program at its Kitsault Valley silver-gold project in British Columbia's Golden Triangle in the middle of this month, reported Craig Stanley, Raymond James analyst, in a May 7 research note.
Rated Outperform
The Canadian explorer, currently priced at CA$3.80 per share, is rated Outperform 2, meaning it is expected to appreciate or outperform the Standard & Poor's 500 over the next 12–18 months, noted Stanley.
The company has 317.2 million outstanding shares. Its market cap is CA$1.206 billion. Its 52-week range is CA$3.21–5.84 per share.
Target Areas for Drilling
Dolly Varden announced that the drill program at Kitsault Valley this year will span a minimum of 35 kilometers, reported Stanley. Here are the target areas:
Wolf Vein: Here, the company will drill test the extension of the southwesterly plunging, high-grade silver corridor along strike and at depth with the hope of further expanding the zone. Wolf's current resource, albeit from May 2019, is 4,000,000 ounces of 295 grams per ton silver (4 Moz of 295 g/t Ag).
Homestake Silver: This deposit, 300 meters (300m) southeast of Homestake Main, has a current Inferred resource of 15 Moz of 146 g/t Ag and 337,000 ounces (337 Koz) of 3.1 g/t gold (Au). One highlight intercept from this zone last year is 8.72m of 27 g/t silver and 21.55 g/t Au (hole HR24-431).
Moose Vein: Drilling will test the downplunge extension of this vein located 1.4 km north of Wolf. Drilling last year encountered 5m of 978 g/t Ag and 1.07% lead about 45m uplunge from Hole DV23-371. This latter hole, drilled in 2023, hit 7.55m of 269 g/t Ag, including 1m of 712 g/t Ag.
Big Bulk: At this porphyry target 5 km east of the main Kitsault Valley trend, Dolly Varden will drill test the northeast-trending mineralized system. Big Bulk was drilled historically by four different companies, and copper and gold were encountered.
Kinskuch: Once Dolly Varden's CA$5M acquisition of this property from Hecla Mining Co. (HL:NYSE) closes later this month, the acquirer intends to commence a geological program there. If timing and budget allow, Dolly Varden potentially could drill test targets at Kinskuch this year as well.
How Program Stacks Up
At 35-plus km, this year's Kitsault Valley drill program will exceed the size of last year's, 32 km (69 holes). The 2024 campaign consisted of 41 holes over 15.5 km at the Dolly Varden property and 28 holes over 16 km at the Homestake Ridge property.
The year before, the company drilled 115 holes over 51 km, making it the largest in its history.
Dolly Varden has CA$30M in cash, enough to see it through this year's exploration plan.
Next: Resource Update
In 2026, Dolly Varden intends to update the Kitsault Valley mineral resource estimate such that it encompasses all drill results from the past four seasons. The total resource now stands at 64 Moz of Ag and 983 Koz of Au, in seven deposits.
The silver resource specifically is contained within four deposits: Wolf, North Star, Dolly Varden and Torbrit. These total 44 Moz of 294 g/t Ag.
The gold resource is from three deposits at Homestake Ridge: Homestake Main, Homestake Silver and South Reef. These total 983 Koz at 4.9 g/t gold, plus silver, copper and lead.
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