Alicanto Minerals Ltd (ASX:AQI) has returned shallow, high-grade assay results from the first drill holes at its Greater Falun Copper-Gold-Silver Project in Sweden.
AQI shares jumped 10% to 11.5 cents in early Tuesday trading on assays of up to 3.7% copper and 2.3 g/t gold, which are consistent with Alicanto’s geological model and highlight the potential for an extensive mineralised system.
The results come from Alicanto’s now-completed 4,000-metre drilling campaign at the project, which kicked off in October last year. Further assays are pending, and an expanded 20,000-metre drilling program is underway.
“Immense potential”
Alicanto managing director Peter George said the results built on the “immense potential” of the Greater Falun project.
“These are genuinely high-grade results and they are an outstanding start to our exploration campaign,” he said.
“Our geological model, which is based on extensive mining history in the area, our detailed mapping and now these initial drilling results shows there is potential for a large system with areas of very high-grade mineralisation.”
Skarn v VMS
George said the assays were particularly important because they supported Alicanto’s belief that the project was a skarn ore deposit, rather than a volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) system as previously thought.
Both skarn and VMS are types of hydrothermal mineral deposits, ie, accumulations of valuable minerals formed through hot water circulating in the Earth's crust through fractures.
However, recent multi-faceted studies undertaken by Alicanto are leading company geologists to believe that Greater Falun is a good example of a ‘tight’ skarn system with a strong polymetallic character, which could explain the deposit’s copper-gold rich nature with massive limestone and skarn being preserved in the southern parts of the deposit.
“The grades point to the potential for an extensive mineralised system, they are shallow and they support our view that Greater Falun is not a VMS as long thought but is actually a skarn-hosted system,” George said.
“This is a major breakthrough because it shows we are on track to crack the code, which could open the door to a world-class system.”
Next steps
Alicanto has begun a 20,000-metre drilling campaign with two diamond drill rigs in action and a third being mobilised to the Sala deposit.
It will follow up on the multiple outcropping granitic intrusions or ‘heat engines’ delineated in the previous drilling, believed to be the drivers of the proximal skarn mineralisation.
Structural folding of the newly defined stratigraphic sequence is creating ‘bonanza’ style widths at Falun, with the potential also seen in the most recent drilling and field mapping within the Greater Falun project.
“We expect to have a far more detailed picture of the project over the next few months,” George added.
- Daniel Paproth