Continued significant high-grade Iron Ore drill intercepts at Hancock Iron Ore Project
Follow the link to view the announcement in full including all figures:
http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/2916D_1-2022-3-1.pdf
Alien Metals Ltd (LSE AIM:UFO), a global minerals exploration and development company, is pleased to provide an update on assay results from its Phase 3 drilling programme at the Company’s Hancock Iron Ore project, part of its Hamersley Iron Ore Project, Western Australia, further to its announcement of 12 January 2022.
Highlights
· Extensions to the existing Inferred Resource have been identified from the Phase 3 drilling programme:
o 46 RC holes for 1,146m were drilled to target extensions to known deposits and infill drilling on existing JORC inferred Resource of 10.4Mt @ 60.4% Fe
· 17 of the 46 RC holes returned excellent high-grade intersections
· Results include 9m @ 62.2% Fe including 4m @ 64.3% Fe in hole 003_13, 8m @ 63.3% Fe in hole 003_14 and 7m @ 63.3% Fe in hole 003_18
· Excellent in-fill and extension results from Ridge C and E resources
· Consistent grades of over 60% Fe with low levels of deleterious elements
Bill Brodie Good, Chief Executive Officer & Technical Director of Alien Metals, commented:
“We are again delighted with the outcome of this third drilling programme at Hancock, with some excellent high-grade intersections adding more confidence to our existing resource as well as assisting in our understanding of the high-grade units’ spatial relationship in the ridge systems.
“With these great results, Howard Baker is reviewing the resource while the team and I are already planning the next phase of drilling. This will hopefully begin in a couple of months’ time with the aim of increasing the existing resource as well as testing new target ridges. The diamond drill core is currently being processed in Perth and, once all results are received, will be incorporated into the overall dataset for development purposes.
“Development work to get to shovel ready is also pushing ahead really well with an imminent third-party survey to start to work up the specifics for the haul road intersection with the Great Northern Highway and discussions with several possible offtake partners also progressing while ALS laboratory continue to work on the bulk sample.”
As announced on 11 November 2021 and 12 January 2022, the RC drilling that was completed at the end of 2021 comprised a total of 46 holes for 1,146m, with just over half of the drilling taking place on Ridges C and E. This drilling focused on identifying extensions of the mineral resource along strike, as well as increasing drilling density for future resource reclassification. Of the 28 holes drilled on Ridge E, 18 drill holes were designed to increase the geological knowledge within the current resource as well as testing a further 650m along strike, while 4 holes were drilled to update the Ridge C resource with a couple of initial test holes extending the strike potential by a further 350m.
A further 4 exploratory holes in the newly defined Ridge F and 6 in Ridge G were also drilled to complete this drill programme.
Table 1: Summary of significant high grade iron ore drillhole interceptions, Phase 3 RC drilling, Hancock Iron Ore Project, Western Australia
Note 1: Full results are included in the Appendix to this announcement
There are some significant new intersections within the existing resource outlines, as indicated in Table 1 above (inside), which support the initial interpretation and resource outlines and also increase the robustness of the ore body modelled to date. There are also some excellent new intersections on strike both east and west of the ridge C and E resources as indicated in Table 1 above (outside) that we hope will increase the existing total resource. This will be advised once the Company’s consulting resource geologist, Howard Baker, has reviewed all the new data and combined it with the existing data. There is also more detail in some locations of the exact trend of the high-grade sections within the larger iron ore beds and it appears there is a possible second parallel high-grade bed immediately south of ridge E that originally was thought to be only lower grade iron ore material.
Overall, the Company is extremely pleased with the results of this campaign and believes it has added further tonnage to the resource as well as continuing to enhance the high-grade nature of the project with continued excellent results.
It should be noted that some holes were relocated, mainly due to access issues. The Company is therefore reviewing the possibility of using a very compact rig for the next phase of drilling to enable quick and easy access to precise points on the ridge tops that the Company believe will quickly increase confidence and potential volume of the current resource. Another option being considered is taking a 4 x 4 pick up mounted Aircore rig to drill very shallow 6-8m holes on the target areas to further aid in cost effective pinpoint targeting of the higher-grade beds.
As demonstrated in a series of cross sections, below in figures 4 to 7, the excellent correlation of some of the significant holes from this phase of drilling can be seen.
Sample analysis and QA/QC
All samples generated from the drilling were dispatched to ALS Perth.
Samples were analysed for their Basic Iron Ore Package Analysis with XRF finish, which includes Fe, Al, Ca, K, Mg, Mn, Na, P, S and Si. This is the same as the analysis used in all of Alien’s analysis work on this project to date to maintain consistency and comparability between all analyses.
For QA/QC purposes, Alien used the industry standard of inserting 5% Certified Reference Material (CRM) samples, 5% Certified Blank Samples (Blanks) and 5% duplicate samples at source. The CRMs were sourced from Geostats Pty Ltd, Perth, WA, a global leader in the manufacture and sale of CRMs and Blanks.
The results of the standard, duplicates and blanks are all within acceptable variance of expected analytical results for the phase 3 RC drilling program.
Figure 1: Location of Hancock Iron Ore Project, Western Australia
Figure 2: Location of completed RC drill hole, Phase 3 drilling ridges C and E, Hancock Iron Ore Project, Western Australia
Figure 3: All RC drill hole locations, Phase 3 drilling, Hancock Iron Ore Project, Western Australia
Figure 4: Cross Section 1000m East, Ridge E, Hancock Iron Ore Project, Western Australia
Figure 5: Cross Section 100m West, Ridge C, Hancock Iron Ore Project, Western Australia
Figure 6: Cross Section 950m East, Ridge E, Hancock Iron Ore Project, Western Australia
Figure 7: Cross Section 750m East, Ridge E, Hancock Iron Ore Project, Western Australia
For further information please visit the Company’s website at www.alienmetals.uk, or contact:
Alien Metals Limited
Bill Brodie Good, CEO & Technical Director
Tel: +44 (0)203 881 2144
