Vizsla Silver (TSX-V:VZLA) (NYSE: VZLA) started the year with a bang, issuing its updated resource on January 8th. The update incorporates results from 178 new drills holes totalling 100,22 metres, all of which Vizsla completed in 2023 (that’s drilling apace!).

The standout result is that Vizsla increased the size and grade of the resource at Panuco, boosting the contained ounces by 49% while increasing the grade of the higher-confidence indicated tonnes by 17%.

The numbers: Panuco now hosts 9.5 million indicated tonnes grading 289 g/t silver equivalent and 12.2 million inferred tonnes averaging 239 g/t silver equivalent.

That makes for 155.8 million indicated silver equivalent ounces and 169.6 million inferred silver equivalent ounces.

In terms of value, silver generates 56% while gold offers 34%; base metals are modest, representing just 10%.

Vizsla converted almost half of the tonnes that were inferred a year ago to indicated status today, while adding 25 million silver equivalent ounces at the new La Luisa area. Notably, the cut-off date for drill results was September 1, which means that already significant La Luisa resource does not even include a host of strong drill results that significantly extended the strike there. La Luisa will certainly grow with the next estimate.

La Luisa is part of the Napoleon area, which along with Copala make up the bulk of the count. Vizsla will continue to put a good chunk of its efforts into these two areas, to upgrade inferred tonnes and to expand veins along strike. But the team also plans to lean into targets in the central and eastern parts of the project what haven’t seen a lot of work yet as there are tens of kilometres of visible veins (and likely that much again that is blind), which is more than enough to think another major centre of mineralization may yet lie waiting to be found. Certainly some of the mapped veins have already returned multiple high-grade samples from surface, which deserves testing.

Panuco is a standout project. The pace of growth has been phenomenal, with the asset now offering 325 million silver equivalent ounces in rock of very good grade and consistency after just a few years of exploration (intense exploration, granted). The resource is now large, the grade is good, it looks nicely mineable (in terms of consistency, grade, widths, and topography/access), and the ground keep delivering new discoveries.

Vizsla will also complete the first mining study on Panuco this year, a PEA. It makes sense to do – the market already views this project as something that will get mined and is valuing it as such, which is evident from the fact that the stock moves mostly with the price of silver rather than with news.

That said, I’m sure there are several PEA-level studies already completed on Panuco, by mid-tier mining companies considering how they would mine it if they took VZLA over. Vizsla is a clear takeout target. Such a move could happen fairly soon if a miner is proactive and decides to move while silver remains sideways, or it could take longer if miners are slow on the approach.

In short: VZLA was already a great stock for silver price leverage and takeout potential. This resource only amplifies both of those investment rationales.

Courtesy of the Resource Maven