Canada-headquartered explorer Prophecy Development has two major objectives for 2020: increasing silver ounces at the Pulacayo project, in Bolivia, and bolstering investor awareness.

In a statement addressing investors, executive chairperson John Lee and CEO Michael Doolin on Wednesday outlined the company’s achievements of 2019 and detailed how it plans to accomplish its objectives for this year.

At Pulacayo, which Prophecy believes is one of the few first-tier silver deposits not owned by a mining major, the most promising drill targets will be located and systematically drilled.

Prophecy has completed the first three holes of the planned 17 drill holes at the Pulacayo project. These step-out drill holes are located 25-, 50- and 115 m west of the existing Pulacayo resource model. The first assay results are expected in late January.

Prophecy has also mobilised a second drilling rig to Pulacayo and expects to complete the proposed 5 000 m drill programme in February with full assay results available by March. The remainder of the step out drill holes are collared up to 2 km west from the existing resource model.

Last year, the company drilled Pulacayo and Paca for the first time in eight years, with the best Paca drill hole intersecting 12 m of 1 085 g within 79 m of 279 g/t. This is comparable to the best drill results from neighbouring New Pacific Metals Corp's Silver Sands project.

“We have barely scratched the surface of this massive system (literally as well as metaphorically),” the investor letter stated.

The Pulacayo deposit currently has a National Instrument 43-101-compliant resource of 2.08-million tonnes at 455 g/t silver, 2.18% lead and 3.19% zinc in the indicated category. It also has 0.48-million tonnes at 406 g/t silver, 2.08% lead and 3.93% zinc in the inferred category.

The company estimates that the amounts of metals of the indicated category are 30.4-million ounces of silver, 100.0-million pounds of lead, and 146.3-million pounds of zinc.

Prophecy last year hired two full-time geologists to work at Pulacayo and scout out regional projects.

In 2019, the company also bolstered its team by recruiting two mining engineers to the board of directors: Marc Leduc, formerly president of Bear Creek Mining, and Ron Clayton, formerly CEO of Tahoe Resources. Doolin, who earlier commissioned three mines at Klondex Mines, also joined the company during the year.

Regarding its investor awareness objective, Prophecy stated that it would focus on attracting analyst research coverage, new strategic investors and searching other quality silver and gold projects.

The explorer has also proposed a name change to Silver Elephant Mining to reflect its focus in developing the Pulacayo silver project. Shareholders will meet in March to decide on the new name and to approve the consolidation of its issued and outstanding shares at a ratio of one new common share for every five to ten old common shares outstanding.