Shares in Alien Metals (LSE:UFO) rose 17% in early trading on Wednesday after the company reported strikingly high-grade silver results from the first two holes of a new drilling programme at its Elizabeth Hill project in Western Australia.
The assays, released by joint venture partner West Coast Silver, included one interval of 21 metres grading 1,047 grams per tonne of silver from a depth of just 10 metres. That included a particularly rich one-metre section at over 15,000 grams per tonne.
A second hole returned 15 metres at 723 grams per tonne from just one metre down, with gold also detected in the same interval.
The results come from an initial 12-hole diamond drilling campaign, with assays from the remaining holes expected over the next two months. Alien retains a 30% free-carried interest in the project through to a mining decision.
Elizabeth Hill was previously mined in the early 2000s but shut down due to low silver prices. The current programme targets shallow mineralisation that could support a restart.
The share rose 0.014p to 0.099p.