Alien Metals Ltd, a global minerals exploration and development company, has provided an update on its inaugural drilling programme at the high-grade Elizabeth Hill Silver Project in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia.
Highlights
- Mulitple occurrences of visible silver have been identified in drill core recovered from shallow drilling completed to date.
- Additionally, visible copper mineralisation has also been identified.
- Significant sulfides also identified in core associated with copper and nickel mineralisation.
- The drilling has so far confirmed the company's geological interpretation that the original Elizabeth Hill silver deposit appears to be associated with a much larger polymetallic mineralised system.
- Indications from the pXRF imply some very high-grade silver readings with current maximum of 21 800 g/t silver (Ag) (700 oz/t Ag), 5% copper (Cu), 1.1% Nickel (Ni) as well as highly anomalous Cu, Ni and zinc (Zn) readings over consistent interceptions.
Encouragingly, the mineralised envelope at Elizabeth Hill is clearly larger than modelled by previous explorers, with this initial drilling demonstrating complex pervasive multi-phase mineralisation evident in the wider envelope tested to date. From visual inspection of the core there appears to be some significant mineralisation outside of the historic silver orebody which was what the company believed to be the case following the recent detailed data review.
Logging and core-cutting has commenced with the first batch of samples due to be dispatched to Perth in the coming days.
Bill Brodie Good, CEO and Technical Director of Alien Metals, commented: “As we have previously mentioned, the West Pilbara is recognised as a world class mineral province with the potential to discover significant new deposits of nickel, copper, silver and PGMs. We believe the historic Elizabeth Hill silver mine, located between two major intrusive units, is one of the most prospective targets in the region for a possible volcanic massive sulphide type system, along with the PGM potential already identified in the reefs in the tenement and surrounds. While it is early days, we are extremely encouraged by these initial findings and will continue to refine the drilling programme to maximise its effectiveness and results.”
This inaugural drilling programme is designed to test some of the historic drilling undertaken over 20 years ago for quality control (QA/QC) purposes, but also and as importantly, to test the company's belief that the historical silver orebody forms part of a much larger and widespread mineralised system.
Due to difficult ground conditions and complex geology, the diamond drilling programme is currently behind schedule. The focus has been on core recovery and the expected drilling rate has been affected. The original plan, as previously announced, was to drill seven diamond drill holes for some 650 m. However, due to the noted issues the company is working on a plan to switch out some of the originally planned diamond core drillholes to reverse circulation (RC) drillholes, or at least for the deeper planned holes to carry out RC collars down to 60 or 70 m and then diamond 'tails', whereby the remainder of the hole is drilled using the diamond drilling method.
The company is still planning to drill all the planned holes but at this stage plans to adapt the drilling method to better suit the ground and the effectiveness of the programme. This will aid in completing the planned drill programme on the orebody in a more timely and cost effective manner, and will still enable excellent information to be gathered, both from the RC and diamond core drill samples generated. It might also enable the company to drill extra holes within the original budget parameters in and around the orebody to further increase our geological and grade knowledge of the orebody and the surrounding mineralisation. Based on this potential switch to RC drilling a follow up RC programme is also now in final stages of planning to take advantage of having the drill rig already on site and working.