Alien Metals (UFO ) said ongoing drilling at the Elizabeth Hill Silver Project continues to produce visible sulphides and silver and is providing “excellent geological information.”
Last month, Alien said it was “extremely encouraged” by the initial findings of its inaugural drilling program at the Elizabeth Hill Silver Project in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia.
This inaugural program is designed to test some of the historic drilling undertaken over 20 years ago for quality control (QA/QC) purposes, but also to test the Company’s belief that the historical silver ore body forms part of a much larger and widespread mineralised system.
In September, the minerals exploration and development firm said ‘multiple occurrences’ of visible silver have been identified in the drill core which were recovered from shallow drilling.
It said drilling had confirmed its geological interpretation that the original Elizabeth Hill silver deposit appears to be associated with a much larger polymetallic mineralised system.
This morning, Alien Metals announced that visible sulphides and native silver have been observed in core and reverse circulation (RC) chips, which appears to support the Company’s view that a larger polymetallic halo exists around the original high-grade silver deposit.
The Company reported this morning that the holes drilled with diamond core have provided excellent geological information from logging and handheld XRF (pXRF) testing.
In addition, visible silver was intersected in at least 2 holes while numerous sulphides were also identified in both veining and disseminated form throughout the rock units, it noted.
‘The technical team has noted that there is an apparent polymetallic mineralised halo mainly in the eastern side of the Munni Munni fault in the ultramafic suite of rocks, while there appears to be strong silver mineralisation in the granite units to the west,’ Alien highlighted.
To date, ongoing drilling at the Elizabeth Hill deposit has provided important QA/QC validation of historic work and helped identify new mineralisation. The Company highlighted that ‘excellent’ quality core has been attained, which has since been logged, cut and despatched.
Around 753m has been drilled as part of the ongoing programme, including: 211m of diamond core drilling (4 holes) and 542m of RC drilling (6 holes). 14 RC holes for around 1,100m remain, which will test targets along strike of the main orebody and at the nearby J-reef.
Last month, the Company unveiled its intention to amend its drillholes and adapt the drilling method at the project to better suit the ground and the effectiveness of the overall program. It explained at the time that a follow up RC program was now in the final stages of planning.
Today, the Company confirmed that it has switched to a reverse circulation (RC) drilling rig.
Addressing its shareholders, Alien outlined: “The RC rig will complete the remaining planned diamond holes, 4 of the original 8, which as advised were targeted at the historic silver ore body to get a better understanding of the grade, orientation and potential for a minerliased polymetallic halo which the Company believes exists around the original orebody.”
The RC programme will also test other targets along strike from the mine and the surrounding J-Reef target to the east and south of the orebody within the Elizabeth Hill mining licence.
View from Vox
In its recently published half-year results for the six months to 30 June 2021, Alien Metals highlighted a number of recent positive developments, including its recently declared maiden inferred resource in excess of 10Mt @60.4% Fe at the group’s Hancock Iron Ore Project.
The results were ‘significantly’ ahead of expectations with low levels of deleterious elements indicating that the project could produce high-quality Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) products.
The Company highlighted that ridges E and C at Hancock are only partially tested to date, and that it feels there is ‘considerable’ potential to define further DSO grade material.
‘With only a quarter of the Western Ridges targets tested to date, we believe there is considerable scope to grow the DSO resource over the next 6 months,’ it told investors.
Whilst Capstone Mining Corp decided not to proceed with the farm-in JV in June this year, the Company said it continues to see potential in the Donovan 2 copper-gold project in Mexico.
Commenting on the set of the results, Dan Smith, Chairman of Alien Metals said: “In addition to driving value in our existing portfolio of assets, we continue to be presented with a number of potential acquisition opportunities across a range of commodities and geographies.”
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