Blackrock Silver Launches Fully Funded 17,000-Meter Drilling at Tonopah West, Nye County

Blackrock Silver mobilized drill rigs to its Tonopah West project in Nye County, initiating what the company described as a fully funded, two‑phased, 17,000‑metre resource expansion designed to push an updated mineral resource estimate and preliminary economic assessment toward delivery by the end of March 2026. President and CEO Andrew Pollard said the program is now officially underway following the company’s Feb. 25 press release.

The program is split into an Eastern Expansion of 9,100 metres across 20 holes and a Northwest Expansion of 8,000 metres across 10 holes, for a total of 30 holes. The Tonopah West property sits along the Walker Lane Trend and straddles Nye and Esmeralda counties in Nevada. Some outlets reported the total as 17,100 metres, but the company’s distributed release and republished copies list 17,000 metres as the program total.

Technical priorities are defined by vein targets and recent seismic work. The Eastern Expansion targets shallow mineralization along the Pittsburg‑Monarch fault, following up on “high‑grade intercepts from late 2025,” while the NW Expansion focuses on extensions of the Denver and Paymaster vein sets and features an 800‑metre seismic‑guided step‑out. Pollard’s verbatim comment in the company release states in part: “With our updated mineral resource estimate and preliminary economic assessment on Tonopah West on track for delivery by the end of March 2026, we are excited to get the drills back to continue to test the extents of silver and gold mineralization at our deposit with a fully‑funded 17,000 metre, two‑phased expansion program now officially underway. Guided by recent seismic data, an 800 metre step‑out is the highlight of our NW Expansion Program, where the bulk of drilling is targeting extensions of the Denver and Paymaster vein sets. Our Eastern Expansion Program follows up on our successful 2025 campaign, where shallow, thick zones of high‑grade mineralization were encountered in at least three northwest oriented structures that …” The distributed excerpt ends with a trailing ellipsis, indicating the release excerpt was truncated.

Reporting from national coverage adds tactical and permitting context. Globe and Mail summarized the program as using a capital‑efficient RC/Core hybrid across 30 sites to maximize metreage while preserving geological detail, and reported that a near‑complete hydrology program is underpinning permitting for an exploration decline, test mining, and bulk sampling targeted for 2027. Market chronology items republished by MarketScreener note recent finance moves that provide funding context, including a Dec. 24 announcement to raise C$15 million via a non‑brokered private placement and a Jan. 7 notice that the company received C$14.99993 million from 2176423 Ontario Ltd. MarketScreener also records a Jan. 29 appointment of Sean Thompson as Head of Investor Relations.

Market snapshots republished alongside the release have reflected strong investor interest: Globe and Mail / TipRanks figures cited an average trading volume of about 1,670,988 and a market capitalization near C$681.6 million, while intraday tick displays on MarketScreener and Yahoo Finance showed sharp short‑term gains in the TSX‑V and OTC tickers. Blackrock Silver’s listed symbols are TSX‑V: BRC; OTCQX: BKRRF; FSE: AHZ0.

With rigs mobilized and 30 holes planned, the next local milestones are drill progress, assay returns from the Eastern follow‑up to 2025 intercepts, and the company’s promised updated MRE and PEA by the end of March 2026. Progress on the hydrology program and permitting will determine whether Tonopah West advances toward the exploration decline and bulk sampling work slated for 2027.