The Andean Silver Ltd (ASX: ASL) share price is in focus today after the company pinpointed a bonanza-grade silver-gold trend at its Cerro Bayo Project's Juanita prospect, returning surface samples up to 62,663 grams per tonne silver equivalent.
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What did Andean Silver report?
- Surface sampling at Juanita prospect returned assays up to 62,663g/t silver equivalent (25,047g/t Ag & 453.2g/t Au), or 755g/t gold equivalent
- High-grade breccia zone defined over 2 kilometres strike length, with observed widths up to 18 metres
- Historic drilling and channel results include 17.1m @ 194g/t AgEq and 1.6m @ 1,209g/t AgEq
- Juanita sits outside the existing Cerro Bayo 136Moz AgEq mineral resource
- Andean Silver held $53.4 million in cash at the end of March quarter 2026
What else do investors need to know?
The Juanita discovery marks the third major greenfield exploration area identified by Andean Silver at Cerro Bayo, indicating a pathway for further growth beyond current resources. Juanita's mineralisation differs from the typical epithermal veins of the district, displaying high-grade precious metals across multiple events and a large breccia system.
Recent mapping suggests past drilling was limited, with much of Juanita's most prospective zones remaining untested. The company is now embarking on detailed geological work and systematic sampling along the 2-kilometre trend to firm up priority drill targets.
What did Andean Silver management say?
Andean Silver Managing Director Matthew Allen said:
Juanita is emerging as a potentially significant silver-gold prospect. Its mineralisation differs from the vein-style deposits common across the Company's tenure, with high-grade silver and gold occurring over a substantial strike length and through multiple mineralising events.
Juanita historically has remained underexplored for 20 years due to the subtle surface expression of the system exposed on surface and limited intersection in historic scout drilling.
Juanita represents a third new large exploration area identified outside the existing resources at the Cerro Bayo Project, which include the Guanaco and Droughtmaster corridors, building Andean's future prospect pipeline.
What's next for Andean Silver?
Andean Silver plans to accelerate mapping, channel sampling, and drill planning at Juanita, targeting high-grade zones for maiden drill tests. Broader objectives include ramping up both brownfields and greenfields exploration throughout Cerro Bayo to grow resources and restart production.
The company is well funded to support these campaigns, with feasibility and resource upgrade studies running in parallel. Andean aims to transition Cerro Bayo from an exploration project into a near-term development and production asset by late 2027.
Andean Silver share price snapshot
Over the past 12 months, Andean Silver shares have risen 31%, outperforming the S&P/ASX All Ords Index (ASX: XAO), which has risen 1% over the same period.
