Alien Metals Ltd (LON:UFO) has completed an initial review of data supplied by Karratha Metals Group in relation to the acquisition of the Elizabeth Hill silver project in Western Australia.
Alien signed an option to acquire Elizabeth Hill on 4 December 2019.
Completion of the acquisition remains conditional on, amongst other matters, satisfactory mutual due diligence on the project and Alien by the parties.
As it stands there appears to be significant unmined resources remaining based on the 1999 resource estimate, taking into account more recent exploration. Evaluating the potential of this resource will be a priority of the company in order to determine whether to recommence a low cost mining operation considering this is an existing mining lease.
Elizabeth Hill’s initial 1999 JORC resource rang in at 4.05mln ounces of silver at greater than 200 grams per tonne silver, while the records show that just under 1.2mln ounces of silver were mined between 1998 and 2000.
What’s striking is the grade it was mined at: an average of 2,195 grams per tonne, or 70.24 ounces per tonne.
A rare aspect of this deposit is the numerous silver nuggets that have been discovered to date which are highly sought after from collectors and in value terms command multiple times the actual silver content of each one due to their uniqueness. Australia’s largest native silver nugget was found at the Elizabeth Hill Silver Mine in 2000, weighing 180 kg, or around 6,300 oz.
Alien will now re-evaluate the 2011 scoping study on the project.
“From an initial review of the data supplied to Alien it is clear that there has been some excellent historic exploration and resource work completed which gives Alien a great platform to work from and develop,” said Alien’s technical director Bill Brodie Good.
“We are very keen to review and compile in detail all the available data plus any new data, for example satellite imagery, regional exploration etc. This will provide us with the information to execute a cost effective, but highly focussed, next stage exploration plan which will add significant geological and economic information to the Project, and therefore advancing it accordingly.”