Alien Metals commences maiden drilling program at Hancock Iron Ore Project
The Hancock Iron Ore project is one of two projects in the Hamersley Province of Western Australia, known as one of the premier iron ore producing regions of the world (Fig.1).
The purpose of the maiden drilling programme is to validate recently announced exploration targets in Hancock Iron Ore Project. The minerals exploration and development company said this will consist of a minimum of 3,000m grid-based shallow RC drilling across priority targets, a planned new drill line on the Sirius Extension prospect and testing at least four target areas.
The program will test four main targets defined from historic and recent work - two high grade east west ridges of outcropping high-grade iron ore in the central and north central parts of the tenement recently identified - and the Kalgan and Sirius Extension prospects.
The planned holes are spread across four initial areas to enable UFO to continue to develop its knowledge of the project as a whole and to further prioritise for next stage drilling.
Figure 1: Location of the Brockman and Hancock Ranges Iron Ore projects within the prolific iron ore producing region of the Pilbara
(Source: Alien Metals)
All samples generated will be despatched to Intertek Genalysis at Maddington, WA, and analysed for their Basic Iron Ore Package Analysis with XRF finish. The company said it expects to receive assay results from its sampling in late February 2021.
Commenting on the program, Bill Brodie Good, CEO & Technical Director of UFO stated,
"We are extremely pleased to get underway with this maiden drilling program which the team has managed to deliver in a very short timeframe. The recent sampling and mapping work completed at each phase has added confidence to the potential of both tenements.”
Alien also has the necessary permissions in place for the Hancock Project and the funding to start proving up the true potential of the historically known prospects (Kalgan and Sirius Extension), and some newly identified significant targets which we are about to start drilling.”
He added, "Three Rivers Drilling of Western Australia is a tried and tested drilling company with an excellent track mounted Reverse Circulation (RC) rig ideal for this initial program.
Our skilled technical team are keen to develop these exciting targets and to continue to develop this project up the knowledge and value curve.”
Maiden drilling on the Brockman tenement (Fig. 2) is still in development stage with a follow up field mapping and sampling program planned prior to finalising a drilling program, along with getting the necessary permission to drill within the tenement all which is ongoing.
Figure 2: Iron bearing ridges, Brockman Tenement, November 2020
(Source: Alien Metals)
Brodie Good added, "We are waiting on the necessary permissions for similar maiden drilling on the Brockman Project which also holds excellent potential. We are excited about the opportunity to add significant value to the project and developing next stage exploration from the outcome. We look forward to updating the market of progress in due course."
Figure 3: Proposed Drilling locations, central ridges, Hancock Project, January 2021
(Source: Alien Metals)
2021 is going to be a critical year for UFO as it advances its Hamersley iron ore projects in Australia following field observations indicating that two of its prospects may be part of the same larger system in the Hamersley Province, which is known as one of the premier iron ore producing regions of the world. Investors will recall its preliminary handheld XRF results are consistent with those observed in the 2019 field programme, with reported ranges of between 40% and 70% iron.
Shares in Alien Metals have performed extremely strongly over the past 12 months rising from 0.2p in Jan 2020 to opening up at 1.125p following this announcement. Whilst the shares are off the 12 month intraday highs of 2.8p , positive newsflow on this significant project in Australia will propel the shares further during 2021.
Reasons to Follow UFO
UFO’s portfolio of exploration stage assets includes volcanogenic massive sulphide style mineralisation (copper, zinc and lead), high-grade silver projects in Mexico and a 51% interest in two highly prospective iron ore projects in the Pilbara region in Australia.
The company said its portfolio may be expanded to include other minerals such as iron ore and lithium, and jurisdictions within Africa and Asia where its management has demonstrable expertise advancing assets in line with international reporting standards.
Expanding License Areas
In recent weeks, the company was granted a 208 km2 exploration licence by Ironbark Zinc surrounding the Citronen zinc-lead project, a high-grade metal project located in northern Greenland which is believed to be one of the world's largest undeveloped zinc-lead projects.
The minerals exploration and development company said the project holds a JORC resource of 131.1m tonnes @ 4.5% zinc and lead for 13bn pounds of contained zinc and lead metal.
The licence is valid until 31 December 2023 and continues UFO’s strategy of identifying counter-cyclical opportunities in first class mining jurisdictions with ‘excellent upside potential.’
"The Company and its advisers continue to assess new projects and identified an opportunity to secure an exploration footprint in northern Greenland on strike and adjacent to the world class undeveloped Citronen zinc-lead project,” said CEO, Bill Brodie Good.
IBK believes the projects offer an attractive entry into one of the world's premier silver belts and will soon start marketing them to a range of potential investors and project partners.
UFO said it will continue its efforts in exploring and developing the projects and simultaneously consider third party funding options to develop and mine the projects.
In other recent news, the company has also recently completed a detailed geological mapping and sampling programme at the Hamersley iron ore projects in Australia with field observations indicating that two of its prospects may be part of the same larger system.
The two projects, which have demonstrated “great potential” are located in the Hamersley Province which is known as one of the premier iron ore producing regions of the world.
Preliminary handheld XRF results are consistent with those observed in the 2019 field programme, with reported ranges of between 40% and 70% iron.
Alien Metals has now commenced preparing a Program of Works ("POW") for submission ahead of drilling.
Meanwhile, North American advisor firm IBK Capital has commenced the marketing process for the Company's San Celso and Los Campos silver projects which are located in Mexico.
The process for the silver projects follows the successful earn-in transaction with Capstone Mining announced earlier in October 2020 regarding UFO’s Donovan 2 copper-gold project.
Complementary Acquisitions
Alien Metals has executed an acquisition-led strategy headed by a high-quality geological team to build a strong portfolio of diversified assets including two recent acquisitions in 2019
These include the Brockman and Hancock Ranges high-grade iron ore projects and the Elizabeth Hill Silver projects both located in the Pilbara region, Western Australia.
In addition to progressing its portfolio of assets and following its strategic review of its portfolio of silver and precious metals projects in Mexico, Alien Metals has identified priority exploration targets within its 9 mining concessions which it is working to advance systematically.
The Company’s silver projects are located in the Zacatecas State, Mexico’s largest silver producing state which produced over 190m oz of silver in 2018 alone accounting for 45% of the total silver production of Mexico for that year.
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