Alien Metals focused on advancing silver projects in Mexico and Australia
Alien Metals said it has completed final legal registration to acquire the Nueva Andromeda permit, which is strategically contiguous to San Celso’s silver project in Zacatecas, Mexico.
The minerals exploration and development firm said detailed mapping and sampling will be carried out on Nueva Andromeda (Fig.1) by its Senior Geologist in Mexico ‘in coming days.’
A review of new silver and copper projects will be presented to Alien for earn-in or to acquire in the same region. Meanwhile, it is awaiting environmental drilling permit authorisation for the San Celso and Los Campos silver projects.
Figure 1: Location of Nueva Andromeda Permit in relation to San Celso with projected mineralised system, Alien, Feb 2021
Bill Brodie Good, CEO & Technical Director of Alien Metals commented; “With funds in place, the team is actively securing our drilling permits for Mexico and we are excited to get underway. As part of this process, the Company has employed Jose Luis Posadas, a highly experienced Zacatecas-based exploration geologist, on a full-time basis.
Jose will be a great addition to our team and his knowledge and connections will help Alien to advance its discussions with local parties about potential projects, review them on the ground quickly and in-house and enable even closer relations with the Mexican Mines department.”
Elizbeth Hill - Australia
At its Elizabeth Hill silver project in Australia (Fig 2.), an Airborne Magnetic Survey was completed where data was captured in the eastern area and combined with the western areas, the whole of which is now being processed and analysed by Southern Geoscience.
The current JORC compliant Mineral Resource at Elizabeth Hill Mine was completed by Iana Ltd in 1999 for 46,800 tons at 2,450g/t silver (86 Oz/t) for 4.05m Oz contained silver.
As announced by the Company back in December 2020, planning is underway at the project to re-enter the historic Elizabeth Hill underground mine which was mined between 1998 and 2000 via underground mining, primarily between the 62 metre (m) and 102 m levels.
Figure 2: Location of Elizabeth Hill Project, Western Australia, Jan 2021
(Source: Alien Metals Group)
Silver production was around 16,800 tonnes of ore grading 2,195 g/t Ag (70.24 Oz/t Ag) generating 1,170,000 ounces, including some ‘very large specimens’ of native silver.
The Company notes that underground drilling on the target zones will prove more effective than surface drilling of this target, ‘given there are already workings to provide access, to facilitate defining the remaining resource and the potential untested new mineralisation.’
The Group also informed investors that an initial trenching program will commence ‘as soon as possible’ with the aim of identifying at surface native silver and new silver targets.
"We are pleased to provide an update on our exciting silver projects, particularly in light of the recent strengthening silver market which has seen the price hit an eight year high of $30/oz.” said Bill Brodie Good, CEO & Technical Director of Alien Metals.
“Management anticipates this trend to continue in line with rising global demand for the metal, particularly given its modern applications in electronics and green energy, along with the fact that silver is seen as an important store of wealth” he added.
UFO has doubled down on its Silver projects considering recent gains and positive longer-term outlook for the precious metal. Furthermore, UFO management have already struck a successful track record in dealmaking over the past 12 months, which provides significant confidence additional projects in Mexico can be profitably acquired. Shares in Alien Metals have grown past year rising over 550% from 0.2p in Jan 2020 to 1.35p. Shares in the Company were trading 10.98% lower this morning at 1.175p.
Reasons to 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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