The company estimates that there are nearly 16,000 tonnes of silver tailings on site at the mining licence in Australia’s Plibara region
Alien Metals expects the silver tailings project at Elizabeth Hill to provide near-term cashflow. (Credit: tookapic from Pixabay)
Alien Metals has entered into an exclusivity agreement with Wombat Resources to acquire a historic silver tailings project located within the former’s Elizabeth Hill mining licence in Western Australia.
The company will use the 60-day exclusivity period to undertake additional assessment of the tailings in situ. Alien Metals will also look to negotiate an acquisition of the rights and title to the tailings project during the period.
Its preliminary assessment suggests that there are nearly 16,000 tonnes of tailings on site.
According to the company, the estimate is based on tonnage of ore extracted from the mine and additional work has to be undertaken to confirm the available tailings for reprocessing.
The UK-based firm said that recent sampling of the tailings it had carried out had yielded highly promising results.
Alien Metals claims to have taken 84 samples from 21 locations, with silver grades up to 1,270 g/t (38 oz/t). The samples showed an average grade of 472 g/t Ag (13.3 oz/t Silver), said the minerals exploration and development company.
Alien Metals CEO and technical director Bill Brodie Good said: “Following discussions with the silver tailings owner, a first -pass sampling program was undertaken in December 2020 to test the properties of the tailings.
“ALS laboratories in Perth carried out an Aqua Regia ICP-AES assay on 84 auger samples from 21 locations, which returned consistently high values of silver and associated minerals.”
“Over the coming months, the Company will undertake further sample work and analysis to better understand the most efficient and cost-effective processes to extract the silver from the tailings.”
The company expects the historic silver tailings project to provide near-term cashflow.
The proceeds are expected to help the company take up exploration activities at Elizabeth Hill and the surrounding Munni Munni North project, said Brodie Good.