Highlights

• Black Bear Minerals said re-assaying of historic core at its Texas silver project returned higher grades than originally.

• Black Bear Minerals Limited has reported that re-assays of historic drill core at its Shafter silver project in.

• The check-assay work covered 25 drill holes and 498 core assay pairs, along with 148 pulp assays from.

• Shafter has a foreign mineral resource estimate prepared under Canada's NI 43-101 standard, totalling 17.

Black Bear Minerals (ASX:BKB) — said re-assaying of historic core at its Texas silver project returned higher grades than originally reported, while the company works towards a maiden JORC resource.

Black Bear Minerals Limited has reported that re-assays of historic drill core at its Shafter silver project in Texas returned higher silver grades than the original results. In its quarterly activities report for the period to 30 September 2026, the company said hole 201200106 returned 14.6 metres at 542 grams per tonne silver, compared with 471 grams per tonne originally reported.

Shafter re-assay results

The same hole contained a peak interval of 0.6 metres at 2,992 grams per tonne silver. Black Bear also reported gold in hole 201200609, which returned 6.1 metres at 0.5 grams per tonne gold and 227 grams per tonne silver. The company said it recovered gold data for a series of holes drilled in 1982, with one example, SU164, recording 8.2 metres at 348 grams per tonne silver and 0.3 grams per tonne gold.

The check-assay work covered 25 drill holes and 498 core assay pairs, along with 148 pulp assays from five holes. The company cautioned that the results come from a core re-sampling program that carries a sampling bias, and said a second stage of pulp assays is planned to address that.

Resource status and exploration

Shafter has a foreign mineral resource estimate prepared under Canada's NI 43-101 standard, totalling 17.57 million ounces of silver at a 137 grams per tonne cut-off, from 1.89 million tonnes at 289 grams per tonne. Black Bear stated that this estimate is not currently reported in accordance with the JORC Code 2012, and the company has not yet reported a JORC resource. A maiden JORC mineral resource estimate for Shafter is targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026.

Black Bear has drilled 6,311.8 metres at the surface to date. A stratigraphic hole, SFD027, intersected the Mina Grande Formation but found no significant silver. A spectral survey has identified undrilled iron oxide targets outside the resource area. Underground drilling is planned, but depends on gaining access to the existing mine decline.

Independence gold scoping study

At the Independence gold project in Nevada, the company referred to a scoping study it announced on 3 August 2026. The study assumed gold at A$6,128 per ounce and silver at A$93 per ounce, and indicated a post-tax net present value of about A$511m, with initial capital of about A$119m, a payback of about 1.4 years and an all-in sustaining cost of about A$2,248 per ounce net of silver credits. The production target is 31.9 million tonnes at 0.30 grams per tonne gold and 6.09 grams per tonne silver, giving recovered metal of about 250,000 ounces of gold and 1.77 million ounces of silver over a mine life of roughly 9.7 years.

Black Bear noted that the study is preliminary, with capital cost accuracy of plus or minus 30 per cent and operating cost accuracy of plus or minus 20 per cent. It also said 27 per cent of the production target is in the Inferred category, which carries low geological confidence, and that the study covers only part of the resource. At the nearby Modoc project, 50 rock chip samples were collected and results are pending, with spectral survey data also expected.

Cash and funding

The company reported cash of about A$7.819m at 30 September 2026 and exploration spending of A$1.960m for the quarter. Operating cash outflow was A$581,000, while investing outflows were A$8.010m, including A$6.050m for tenements. Black Bear raised A$12.0m of equity during the quarter, less A$754,000 of transaction costs. Payments to related parties were A$228,000.

What to watch

The key milestones set out by the company are the maiden JORC resource for Shafter in the December 2026 quarter, the start of underground drilling once access is secured, results from Modoc rock chips and spectral data, and the second-stage check assays together with digitisation of historic gold data.