Alien Metals (UFO ) said it has been granted a further 30-day extension to its previously signed agreement over the Elizabeth Hill Silver Tailings Project which will enable the group to finish a series of metallurgical and recovery tests and interpret the study’s full results.
The minerals exploration and development company entered into an exclusivity agreement over the Elizabeth Hill Silver Tailings Project in Western Australia back in March 2021 with Wombat Resources. Last month, the Group agreed to a further 45-day exclusivity period.
As part of its ongoing due diligence, the Company commissioned a series of metallurgical and recovery tests on a 200kg bulk sample taken from across the tailings at the project.
Alien told investors today that ‘due to the continued high demand for testing done at the Perth laboratories, the Company has been granted a further 30-day extension to the exclusivity period to enable this detailed study to be completed and full results interpreted.’
Figure 1: Location of Elizabeth Hill Project, Western Australia, Jan 2021
The Company explained that the 30-day extension will allow it to undertake further assessment over the potential retreatment and recovery of the silver tailings while discussions continue regarding the potential acquisition of the Elizabeth Hill Project.
To date, initial sampling by Alien on these tailings have returned very encouraging results. From 84 samples from 21 locations, an average of 472 g/t Silver was returned and 13.3 oz/t Silver while initial recovery test work returned an average of over 90% recovery of the silver.
A summary of the test work being carried out by ALS Perth includes homogenising the 200kg bulk sample to ensure its as representative of the entire tailings as possible, Alien noted.
In addition, the test work will also include further analysis of the grades of the samples being used, testing the optimum particle size for extraction purposes and several recovery methods to find optimum method of extraction in terms of chemical and economic factors.
Figure 2: Tailings Dam, Elizabeth Hill Silver Project, June 2021
Addressing shareholders on Thursday, Bill Brodie Good, CEO & Technical Director of Alien Metals commented, “We are thankful to the Wombat Resources team for this additional extension to the exclusivity agreement on this Project without further cost, and are pleased that they understand the current delays being encountered at the labs due to the overwhelming demand stemming from significant mining activity in Western Australia.”
Brodie Good added: “The ALS laboratory in Perth has commenced a detailed suite of metallurgical and recovery tests on the larger bulk sample we took earlier in the year.
This analysis will give us the best understanding of the economics of this project and its potential to generate income for Alien to put back into the ground in exploration dollars.”
View from Vox
Last Month, Alien said it has received ‘excellent’ initial metallurgical results from its Silver Tailings Project at Elizabeth Hill with six samples returning high levels of silver recovery.
The news followed positive results published in March 2021 from a sampling program which Alien had undertaken back in December 2020 to test the properties of the tailings.
At the time, Alien said it would undertake more sample work and analysis to better understand the most efficient and cost-effective processes to extract the silver from the tailings.
Alien believes the silver tailings project could generate near-term cash flow which could help underpin a range of exploration activities at Elizabeth Hill and the Munni Munni North project.
Shares in Alien Metals have increased by over 35% since the beginning of October 2020.
Reasons To UFO
UFO’s portfolio of exploration stage assets includes 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 Licence Areas
In recent months, Alien 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 firm 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.’
"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.
Complementary Acquisitions
Alien 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.
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