Alien Metals reports positive results from Elizabeth Hills tailings

Minerals exploration and development company Alien Metals updated the market on its exclusivity agreement over the Elizabeth Hills silver tailings project in Western Australia on Wednesday, reporting that initial results from six samples that had been subject to test leaching by ALS Perth were “very encouraging”, returning high levels of silver recovery.

The AIM-traded firm said it had extended the exclusivity period with the project owner for another 45 days, to factor in the backlog of work from laboratories in Perth due to the current high workloads they were experiencing.

It said the extension would allow the company to undertake further assessment over the potential retreatment and recovery of the silver tailings, as discussions continued over the project’s potential acquisition.

The Alien board reported a maximum silver recovery of 95.2%, with an average recovery of 91.9% silver from six samples.

It said the head grade comparison was “highly repeatable”, adding that the recent sampling of tailings returned “very encouraging” results.

A total of 84 samples were taken from 21 locations, with silver grades up to 1,270 grams per tonne, with the samples returning an average grade of 472 grams per tonne.

“We have been aware of the potential of the historic silver tailings at Elizabeth Hill for some time,” said chief executive officer and technical director Bill Brodie Good.

“Knowing that the Elizabeth Hill silver mine's historic operations were somewhat inefficient and being a very high-grade project with abundant native silver in the orebody we felt that, despite previous reprocessing activities, there is likely significant value remaining in the silver tailings.”

Brodie Good said the initial metallurgical results were “really encouraging”, giving the company confidence that, with further test work, the silver tailings held potential for economic recovery.

“With the continued strength in the silver price, currently around $28 per ounce, we see potential for the project to be a significant source of income.”

At 1544 BST, shares in Alien Metals were up 0.19% at 1.15p.