Drilling targets identified at Hamersley Projects
Trading Symbols
AIM: UFO
FWB: I3A1
29th October 2020
Alien Metals Ltd
("Alien Metals" or "the Company")
Follow the link to view the announcement in full including all figures:
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/6447D_1-2020-10-29.pdf
Maiden Drilling targets identified at Hamersley Iron Ore Projects
Alien Metals Ltd (LSE AIM:UFO) ("Alien Metals" or the "Company"), a minerals exploration and development company, is pleased to advise that further to the RNS dated 9th October 2020, the Company's technical team is able to report on the successfully completed detailed geological mapping and sampling programme at the Company's Hamersley Iron Ore Projects.
Highlights :
- Detailed geological mapping and sampling completed over four of the five priority prospects
o Field observations indicate that the BHP 19 and BHP 20 prospects may be part of same larger system
o Additional prospective iron ore units mapped at the Brockman Iron project
- Programme has been successful in validating previously announced Maiden Exploration Targets across both projects
- 95 samples were taken across the projects, with assay results expected late October 2020
o Preliminary Handheld XRF results are consistent with those observed in the 2019 field programme, with reported ranges of 40-70% Fe
o High-grade sample locations extend previously mapped prospective areas which are outside of those incorporated into the Company's maiden Exploration Target
- Final results from sample assays and detailed mapping to assist with preparation of maiden drilling campaign
- Alien Metals has commenced preparing a Program of Works ("POW") for submission ahead of drilling
Chief Executive Officer, Bill Brodie Good said : "The findings from the recently completed field programme are extremely pleasing and further validate the Company's exploration targets. The field work has expanded upon the previous site visit, with the validation of recent research and the potential increase in projected DSO mineralisation within both tenements. It should be noted that the field team advised how busy both areas were in terms of neighbouring companies working in the region which further encourages us to push on with both projects.
"The Company's technical team is compiling and finalising the geological mapping across the Hamersley projects which will give us valuable information ahead of maiden drilling programmes. With over 90 samples collected from only four prospects in a short field programme, we are very encouraged and look forward to some comparable analytical results of the XRF readings to complement the visible interpretations made by the team. We are already considering the follow up program to cover the fifth target not reached yet which in itself still has great potential."
The two projects are within the Hamersley Province of Western Australia, known as one of the premier iron ore producing regions of the world. The Brockman Project (E47/3953) is located in the west Hamersley Province, 100 kilometres ("km") northwest of the Rio Tinto iron ore mining town of Tom Price, and 90km west of the Tom Price to Dampier mine railway. The Hancock Ranges Project (E47/3954) is located in the east Hamersley Province, 15km north of the BHP iron ore mining town of Newman, and 20km west of the Newman to Port Hedland mine railway.
In the Brockman Project area mapping was concentrated on the areas within the lease closest to the historic BHP 19 and 20 deposits to further understand and test the potential of these 2 prospects. Sampling concentrated on the Banded Iron Formations ("BIF") as this was considered to represent the primary iron potential of the tenement. Whaleback Shale was also sampled in areas where iron banding was prominent and Canga (detrital ore) sampling was also done but to a limited extent. A total of 64 samples were collected between these 2 prospects over 4 days of detailed traverses and mapping.
In summary the main outcome of the work has delineated that the Dales Gorge Member of the Brockman Iron Formation is the prominent iron bearing unit found in this area with associated transported Canga units and constitutes the host for the high-grade iron ore. Detrital river derived iron bearing sediments ("CID") were also identified and it is felt that both the Canga and CID units also host potential resource tons as well as the in-situ BIF units. Importantly, the main exploration work being carried out by Rio Tinto directly south of the tenement is on the Canga and CID units further to their development of the major Caliwingina project already in production to the south in the same units.
All samples generated have been despatched to Intertek Genalysis at Maddington, WA, to be analysed for their Basic Iron Ore Package Analysis with XRF finish, which includes elements Fe, Al, Ca, K, Mg, Mn, Na, P, S and Si. This is the same as the analysis used in the 2019 due diligence site visit and it will maintain consistency and comparability between these analyses. Prior to sending the samples to the laboratory the Alien team tested then with a handheld XRF unit to get provisional grade readings to aid in the initial interpretation work. These readings are only a guide however from the similar analysis done in late 2019 the handheld XRF readings were within +/- 8% of the final laboratory results, so these represent an excellent first pass estimate of grades of the samples taken.
Table 1 below outlines the high grade XRF results from the Brockman Project BIF samples, with a maximum of 69.6% Fe.
Table 1: Highlight of BIF XRF results, Brockman Project, October 2020
|
|
|
XRF Results |
|||
|
Sample Nbr |
Sample Desc |
Fe % |
Si % |
P % |
Al % |
|
AM 20 002 001 |
BIF |
56.158 |
15.948 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 002 002 |
BIF |
63.515 |
20.45 |
0 |
5.099 |
|
AM 20 002 005 |
BIF |
63.366 |
7.806 |
0.254 |
0 |
|
AM 20 002 008 |
BIF |
61 |
17.869 |
0 |
4.019 |
|
AM 20 002 012 |
BIF |
67.833 |
16.604 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 002 013 |
BIF |
57.287 |
4.284 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 002 014 |
BIF |
62.306 |
13.857 |
0.23 |
0 |
|
AM 20 002 021 |
BIF |
59.776 |
6.827 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 002 022 |
BIF |
66.996 |
2.988 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 003 003 |
BIF |
69.662 |
26.969 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 003 004 |
BIF |
67.654 |
9.8 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 003 005 |
BIF |
57.428 |
17.728 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 003 008 |
BIF |
54.797 |
28.401 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 003 009 |
BIF |
50.627 |
12.187 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 003 010 |
BIF |
10.678 |
27.57 |
0 |
8.00 |
|
AM 20 003 022 |
BIF |
57.033 |
18.388 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 003 024 |
BIF |
56.852 |
15.777 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 003 025 |
BIF |
64.641 |
24.267 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 003 027 |
BIF |
43.798 |
32.96 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 003 028 |
BIF |
52.016 |
8.031 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 003 029 |
BIF |
55.136 |
10.713 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 003 030 |
BIF |
60.772 |
24.988 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 003 031 |
BIF |
69.899 |
4.664 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 003 033 |
BIF |
59.208 |
5.345 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 003 039 |
BIF |
51.88 |
26.191 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 003 040 |
BIF |
59.502 |
26.348 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 003 041 |
BIF |
57.666 |
15.975 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 003 043 |
BIF |
55.085 |
2.696 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 003 044 |
BIF |
54.871 |
5.809 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 003 045 |
BIF |
52.393 |
24.465 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 003 046 |
BIF |
61.531 |
26.816 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 003 047 |
BIF |
56.395 |
18.792 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 003 048 |
BIF |
51.649 |
31.893 |
0 |
0 |
Although BHP only reported 2 iron ore deposits, from this field work it appears that the intermittently exposed upper and lower iron bearing units within the Dales Gorge Member both present as prominent scarps that can be traced both within and beyond the bounds of the tenement. Hence the prospectivity of these 2 prospects extends well beyond the bounds of the historical deposits identified by BHP. The observed spatial coincidence of both the historic BHP deposits with prominent detrital iron occurrences would suggest that BHP was in fact targeting these detrital Canga deposits.
Significantly for Alien Metals the continuity of grade in relation to the mapped units of the primary units sampling show excellent correlation and significant continued very high-grade DSO level iron ore in significant volume. Figures 2 and 3 below show the XRF grade of sampling completed in relation to location of the sampling.
The 2 main prospects in the Hancock Ranges Iron Project were mapped as part of the programme. Helicopter support was utilised to transport the team directly into areas of the Kalgan prospect to maximise field time against travel time and over 40 further samples were taken with more detailed and positive mapping carried out.
All samples generated have been despatched to Intertek Genalysis. As with the samples from the Brockman project prior to sending the samples to the laboratory the Alien team tested then with a handheld XRF unit to get provisional grade readings to aid in the initial interpretation work. These readings are only a guide however from the similar analysis done in late 2019 the handheld XRF readings were within +/- 8% of the final laboratory results, so these represent an excellent first pass estimate of grades of the samples taken.
Table 2 below outlines the high grade XRF results from the Hancock Ranges Iron Project BIF samples, with a maximum of 70.07%Fe.
Table 2: Highlight of BIF XRF results, Hancock Ranges Iron Project, October 2020
|
|
|
XRF Results |
|||
|
Sample Id |
Sample Desc |
Fe % |
Si % |
P % |
Al % |
|
AM 20 001 001 |
BIF |
68.65 |
1.76 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 001 002 |
BIF |
51.43 |
12.38 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 001 003 |
BIF |
69.14 |
13.47 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 001 008 |
BIF |
49.79 |
9.66 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 001 009 |
BIF |
63.15 |
15.72 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 001 010 |
BIF |
53.09 |
14.57 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 001 011 |
BIF |
43.25 |
21.81 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 001 012 |
BIF |
49.16 |
31.60 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 001 013 |
BIF |
43.64 |
15.50 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 001 017 |
BIF |
39.58 |
12.58 |
0 |
2.634 |
|
AM 20 001 018 |
BIF |
48.08 |
4.65 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 001 019 |
BIF |
55.57 |
13.04 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 001 020 |
BIF |
43.52 |
31.94 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 001 027 |
BIF |
67.44 |
5.43 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 001 028 |
BIF |
69.63 |
2.13 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 001 029 |
BIF |
64.90 |
1.05 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 001 030 |
BIF |
64.12 |
0.97 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 001 031 |
BIF |
65.63 |
7.38 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 001 032 |
BIF |
64.65 |
6.26 |
0.183 |
0 |
|
AM 20 001 033 |
BIF |
64.85 |
1.61 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 001 034 |
BIF |
70.07 |
10.50 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 001 035 |
BIF |
34.69 |
44.05 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 001 036 |
BIF |
62.77 |
4.15 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 001 037 |
BIF |
64.90 |
1.99 |
0 |
0 |
|
AM 20 001 038 |
BIF |
55.35 |
24.95 |
0 |
0 |
Seven mapping transects were walked across the Kalgan Prospect to test for the presence and lateral extent of previously reported high grade occurrences of iron ore. In situ outcrop of rock was mapped with 128 mapping points and 25 rock chip samples were collected from BIF outcrops where iron was the dominant mineral present. BIF dominated by silica bands, dolerite, shale and rhyolite was not sampled. In addition to the walked transects, a helicopter survey of the surrounding terrain was conducted and a further 12 samples were collected.
The Kalgan prospect initial XRF results show excellent continuation and correlation along close to a 3km strike length with excellent initial XRF grades of DSO level.
A series of BIF ridges were mapped parallel to the regional trend and on strike and parallel to the Kalgan prospect and have returned in the initial XRF analysis constantly high-grade Iron with the majority from the sampling averaging over 60% Fe.
While the mapping and sampling has not comprehensively evaluated all the BIF occurrences within the tenement at least two targets have been highlighted for immediate follow up work and the Company will be able to finalise such plans on receipt of the final laboratory assays.
The Company is extremely pleased with the outcome of this field programme and will be able to finalise recommendations for next stage work following receipt of the final results from the laboratory analysis.
The programme was carried out on budget, on time and with no health or safety incidents and has provided better than expected results and potential for both projects.
Alien Metals looks forward to reporting the full results and interpretations and associated next stage plans once received in the coming couple of weeks.
For further information please visit the Company's website at www.alienmetals.uk , or contact:
|
Alien Metals Limited Bill Brodie Good, CEO & Technical Director
St-James' Corporate Services, Company Secretary
|
First Equity Limited (Joint Broker) Jason Robertson Tel +44 (0)20 7374 2212 |
|
Beaumont Cornish Limited (Nomad) James Biddle/ Roland Cornish Tel: +44 (0) 207 628 3396 |
Novum Securities Limited (Joint Broker) Jon Belliss Tel +44 (0)20 7399 9425 |
|
Blytheweigh (Financial PR) Megan Ray/Rachael Brooks Tel: +44 (0) 207 138 3204 |
Turner Pope Investments (TPI) Limited (Joint Broker) Andy Thacker/ Zoe Alexander Tel +44 (0)20 3657 0050 |
Notes to Editors
Alien Metals Ltd is a mining exploration and development company listed on AIM of the London Stock Exchange (LSE: UFO). The Company's focus is on precious and base metal commodities.
Alien Metals has embarked upon 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 (Direct Shipping Ore) iron ore projects and the Elizabeth Hill Silver projects both located in the Pilbara region, Western Australia.
In addition to progressing and developing 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.
Qualified Person
The information in this report which relates to Exploration Targets, Exploration Results and Mineral Resources or Ore Reserves is based on information compiled by Mr Allen Maynard, who is a Member of the Australian Institute of Geosciences ("AIG"), a Corporate Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy ("AusIMM") and independent consultant to the Company. Mr Maynard is the Director and principal geologist of Al Maynard & Associates Pty Ltd and has over 40 continuous years of exploration and mining experience in a variety of mineral deposit styles. Mr Maynard has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the "Australasian Code for reporting of Exploration Results, Exploration Targets, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves" (JORC Code). Mr Maynard consents to inclusion in the report of the matters based on this information in the form and context in which it appears.
Glossary:
XRF - X-ray fluorescence, used for elemental analysis and chemical analysis, particularly in the investigation of metals in the resource industry
Fe - Iron
Al - Aluminium
Ca - Calcium
K - Potassium
Mg - Magnesium
Na - Sodium
P - Phosphorous
S - Sulphur
Si - Silica
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