Alien Metals provides Elizabeth Hill update

This trenching and mapping programme was completed as part of some QA/QC work by Alien on the numerous targets in the project, and was also planned to complement the recently completed initial drilling programme.

Highlights

• Strong copper (Cu), nickel (Ni) and platinum group elements (PGE) (mainly palladium [Pd]) assays from trenching and rock chip sampling programmes.
• Trenching results include:
  • 26 m at 0.25% Cu and 0.2% Ni, including 8 m at 0.6% Cu, 0.38% Ni and 0.2 g/t Pd from trench 15a, which remains open on strike at both ends.
  • 34 m at 0.1 % Cu, 0.17% Ni and 0.19 g/t Pd over the entire length of trench 12a, also open on strike at both ends.
• Rock chip results include:
  • 2.2% Cu, 0.51% Ni and 0.6 g/t Pd from a sample taken from historic trench 15.
  • 0.23% Cu from sample at Yannery Hill prospect in Munni Munni North.
• Results further validate the company's view that the Elizabeth Hill Project hosts the potential for a much larger mineralised (VMS-style) system along with the silver deposit.

Bill Brodie Good, CEO and Technical Director of Alien Metals, commented: “The maiden trenching programme has reinforced historical anomalous copper, nickel and PGE mineralisation, which are still open along strike and, given the width and grade of these zones, could indicate the presence of a much larger system as a source. This mineralisation appears to be associated with the ultramafic intrusion of the Munni Munni intrusion, the known J-Reef and the complex structural controls in the area. These results will contribute to planning a follow-up field programme to expand our knowledge of the potential of these targets.

“The more regional rock chip sample results from Munni Munni North are also giving us further target areas to pursue, especially the southern trend of the J-Reef and the area around the Conquest prospect in the east, and we will continue to test these areas when we go back into the field.”

Following a detailed review of the historical exploration carried out on the project, including the advice and recommendations from senior geologists who have previously worked on the project at various stages over the last 25 years, Alien proposed a series of trenches. The goal of this was to identify a repeat silver orebody as well as to identify a more detailed surface expression of potential Cu/Ni and PGE orebodies already partially defined by historic work.

Alien therefore planned a series of initial trenches to further test both the southern extent of the silver deposit, and undertook in-fill and on strike testing of the J-Reef copper, nickel and PGE anomalies around the Natalie Hill Prospect south and east of the mine. Due to the very hard calcrete crust south of the orebody, this programme did not access the in-situ units below the surface cover with the excavator available, however more success was achieved along the J-Reef trend.

All samples were assayed at ALS Perth by method ME ICP61 for the main elements such as copper, nickel and cobalt. Further selected samples with PGE potential from the J-Reef prospect area were further analysed by method PGM-ICP23 for gold, platinum and palladium. A total of 147 samples were analysed by the full suite with 97 of those being further tested for PGE mineralisation. QA/QC samples were inserted as standard practice every 20 samples including CRM standards, and blanks and on-site duplicates to ensure laboratory results were of an acceptable level of confidence.

Significant results from the trenching and sampling programme include Trench C3 (resampling of a historic trench), which returned 2 m at 0.27% Cu, 0.13% Ni, 0.32 g/t Pd, Trench C12A, a new trench just north east of the historic trench 12, which returned 24 m at 0.12 % Cu, 0.19% Ni and 0.21 g/t Pd including 4 m at 0.45 g/t Pd and Trench C15A, a new trench east south east of historic trench 15, which returned 14 m at 0.42% Cu, 0.28% Ni and 0.15 g/t Pd, including 8 m at 0.6% Cu, 0.38% Ni, 0.20 g/t Pd. Rock Chip FXA15989, taken from an old sample pile from the eastern end of the historic trench 15 returned 2.2% Cu, 0.51% Ni and 0.6 g/t Pd.

These results confirm some of the historic sampling and add confidence to the theory of the presence of a larger mineralised polymetallic zone associated with the Munni Munni intrusion with mainly copper, nickel and PGEs. With both trenches 12A and 15A finishing at both ends in mineralisation, there is great potential for the mineralised zone to have a substantial width, which is up to 100 m in some historic reports. As the figures show below, the north-south strike extent of this system has the potential to be several kilometres long, running into the Munni Munni North licence to the south. Historic trench 16 returned 8 m at 1.28% Ni, 1.3 % Cu and 150 g/t Pd, though has not been retested by Alien to date. With this recent work and the confirmation of the historic anomalies, the company continues to understand and develop the potential of this larger system.

The company is very encouraged by these early results and is planning the next stage of work to possibly infill with more sampling, and is considering RAB or air core drilling methods to cover more ground cost effectively, while getting more detail from sub surface sampling.

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/exploration-development/22112021/alien-metals-provides-elizabeth-hill-update/