Alien Metals Ltd (AIM:UFO ) has updated investors on the Company’s Elizabeth Hill Silver and Hamersley Iron Ore Projects in Western Australia. As a result of recent activities and fund raising, Alien clearly continues to be presented with a range of mineral opportunities.
Elizabeth Hill Project
Trenching and Drilling
The Program of Works (“POW”) at the Elizabeth Hill Project has now been approved by the Western Australia Mines Department for initial trenching and drilling at the Elizabeth Hills Mining Licence.
The POW covers up to 1.25 km of trenching programs and 4,000m of RC and diamond drilling where the trenching programs to test for new or repeat silver orebody due south of existing deposit while the drilling program will target the historical resource area to test for potential strike extensions.
Concurrently with the drilling and trenching program, Alien will carry out grid sampling of the historic mine tailings dam with the view of acquiring this from a third party.
Field Exploration
In addition, the Company will commence field exploration from mid-December. The Field exploration will include airborne surveys and the Company is currently obtaining quotes for a close spaced airborne geophysical survey to cover the entire tenement area of the mining lease and the 117km2 exploration licence application area.
The aeromagnetic survey will aid in tying in all existing prospects and historical data to aid in prioritising numerous existing targets and collation of all the airborne surveys, geological interpretations, and geochemical results, will drive new target generation across the Exploration Licence
Alien is also planning to remove the plinth over the historic shaft, to test the depth of water in the old workings with a view to re-opening the shaft and underground workings.
Figure 1: Location of the Elizabeth Hill Silver Project, Western Australia
[Source Alien Metals]
Chief Executive Officer, Bill Brodie Good said: “The granting of the program of works is a key requirement to undertaking ground disturbing activities at Elizabeth Hill. Now the approvals are in place, the technical team is finalising plans to shortly commence a long awaited field exploration program at Elizabeth Hill which will initially focus on the trenching program to explore for a repeat silver orebody due-south of the historic mine, grid sampling of the old tailings which are understood to still contain significant silver, opening up the main shaft to assess the current water levels and get some samples to be able to request permission to pump out the water safely. We are looking to mobilise the team on site pre-Christmas, with work to recommence at the start of 2021.
Elizabeth Hill holds enormous potential for the Company, both in the old mine and its bonanza grades and the unique nuggets associated with the deposit, as well as the numerous untested nearby targets associated with a significant geological intrusion already proven to host at least two significant mineral deposits.”
Hamersley Iron Ore Project
Alien will commence rehabilitation of existing access tracks into the Kalgan prospect whilst it is awaiting final results of its in-fill sampling of Kalgan prospect
Regarding the Hancock tenement, Alien has received several drilling quotes and is currently planning additional reconnaissance and geological mapping work on the Brockman Tenement.
Bill added: “Recent work on the Hamersley Project has been consistently encouraging. Being able to start work on a direct access route into the Kalgan Prospect from Newman in the Hancock Ranges Project is a bonus because it means we can get the access done much quicker and more cost effectively, leaving us more funds for drilling. We have a tender out with a number of drilling contractors for carrying out our maiden drill program in early 2021.
We look forward to an extremely busy field season and developing both projects significantly for the Company and our investors.”
Shares in Alien Metals have almost doubled since the beginning of October to enable the Company to raise £2.5m equity capital at 1.1p in November 2020. Now well-funded, shares in Alien have remained above the placing price, closing last week at 1.075p
Reasons to Follow Alien Metals
Multi-Mineral Portfolio
UFO’s portfolio of exploration stage assets include volcanogenic massive sulphide style mineralisation (copper, zinc and lead), high-grade silver projects in Mexico and a 51% interest in two highly prospective iron ore projects in the Pilbara region in Australia.
The company said its portfolio may be expanded to include other minerals such as iron ore and lithium, and jurisdictions within Africa and Asia where its management has demonstrable expertise advancing assets in line with international reporting standards.
Expanding License Areas
In recent weeks, the company was granted a 208 km2 exploration licence by Ironbark Zinc surrounding the Citronen zinc-lead project, a high-grade metal project located in northern Greenland which is believed to be one of the world's largest undeveloped zinc-lead projects.
The minerals exploration and development company said the project holds a JORC resource of 131.1m tonnes @ 4.5% zinc and lead for 13bn pounds of contained zinc and lead metal.
The licence is valid until 31 December 2023 and continues UFO’s strategy of identifying counter-cyclical opportunities in first class mining jurisdictions with ‘excellent upside potential.’
Location of Ironbark Zinc Ltd Citronen zinc-lead deposit and permit area, Greenland
"The Company and its advisers continue to assess new projects and identified an opportunity to secure an exploration footprint in northern Greenland on strike and adjacent to the world class undeveloped Citronen zinc-lead project,” said CEO, Bill Brodie Good.
IBK believes the projects offer an attractive entry into one of the world's premier silver belts and will soon start marketing them to a range of potential investors and project partners.
UFO said it will continue its efforts in exploring and developing the projects and simultaneously consider third party funding options to develop and mine the projects.
In other recent news, the company has also recently completed a detailed geological mapping and sampling programme at the Hamersley iron ore projects in Australia with field observations indicating that two of its prospects may be part of the same larger system.
The two projects, which have demonstrated “great potential” are located in the Hamersley Province which is known as one of the premier iron ore producing regions of the world.
Preliminary handheld XRF results are consistent with those observed in the 2019 field programme, with reported ranges of between 40% and 70% iron.
Alien Metals has now commenced preparing a Program of Works ("POW") for submission ahead of drilling.
Meanwhile, North American advisor firm IBK Capital has commenced the marketing process for the Company's San Celso and Los Campos silver projects which are located in Mexico.
The process for the silver projects follows the successful earn-in transaction with Capstone Mining announced earlier in October 2020 regarding UFO’s Donovan 2 copper-gold project.
Location of Ironbark Zinc Ltd Citronen zinc-lead deposit and permit area, Greenland.
Complementary Acquisitions
Alien Metals has executed an acquisition-led strategy headed by a high-quality geological team to build a strong portfolio of diversified assets including two recent acquisitions in 2019.
These include the Brockman and Hancock Ranges high-grade iron ore projects and the Elizabeth Hill Silver projects both located in the Pilbara region, Western Australia.
In addition to progressing its portfolio of assets and following its strategic review of its portfolio of silver and precious metals projects in Mexico, Alien Metals has identified priority exploration targets within its 9 mining concessions which it is working to advance systematically.
The Company’s silver projects are located in the Zacatecas State, Mexico’s largest silver producing state which produced over 190m oz of silver in 2018 alone accounting for 45% of the total silver production of Mexico for that year.
Investors can see recent a presentation by CEO, Bill Brodie Good, here:
