Alicanto has hit paydirt with its first drillhole at its latest exploration target next door to Sweden’s world class Falun mine. Pic via Getty Images.
Alicanto confirms discovery near one of the world’s great polymetallic mines
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New drilling has returned hits up to 744g/t silver, 32.4% zinc and 1.9% copper just 3.5km from the historic Falun mine in Sweden.
Last month, Alicanto Minerals (ASX:AQI) inked a deal to acquire the historic Falun mine, adjacent to its existing Greater Falun project in Sweden.
Falun was a monster in its day, producing 28Mt at 4% copper, 4g/t gold, 5% zinc, 2% lead and 35g/t silver over an estimated 1000 years, however it closed in 1992 amidst low commodity prices.
AQI says that despite its world class credentials, Falun has received little follow-up modern exploration since its closure.
In fact, the whole project area is rich with underexplored targets.
At Skyttgruvan – 3.5km along strike and hosted within the same lithological horizon as the Falun mine – historical mining between 1890 and 1908 targeted copper-zinc production from a small underground mine.
No modern exploration had tested the mine horizon limestone since the mine closure, despite its proximity and analogous lithostratigraphic position to Falun.
First drillhole hits paydirt
AQI’s maiden drillhole into Skyttgruvan-Naverberg, targeting the down plunge continuation of the historic mine, and has successfully intersected multiple zones of semi-massive to massive sulphide mineralisation.
Highlights include:
- 5.3m @ 6.8% Zn eq (84g/t Ag, 0.5% Cu, 3.3% Zn, 1.2% Pb)
- 2.9m @ 14.7% Zn eq (194g/t Ag, 0.1% Cu, 4.9% Zn, 7.6% Pb)
- 6.8m @ 9.7% Zn eq (114g/t Ag, 0.5% Cu, 5.5% Zn, 1.0% Pb, 0.13g/t Au)
- 3.9m @ 11.3% Zn eq (20g/t Ag, 0.2% Cu, 9.5% Zn, 1.5% Pb)
A second drillhole (GRO22-20) did not hit the host limestone sequence.
However, it did pull up copper mineralisation between 397.60-405.57m down hole, which correlates to the surface projection of the Naverberg deposit, a small, historic open pit copper mine.
Down hole EM measurements returned a significant off-hole conductor north of the hole, which has yet to be tested.
“These are extremely encouraging results which suggest we have made an important breakthrough in our search of the extension of the rich Falun mineralised system,” AQI managing director Rob Sennitt says.
“The Falun mine was one of the great mines of the world. For centuries it was the largest copper producer in the western world,” he says.
“We have always believed that there is significant potential for additional mineralisation in the region.
“These results, some 3.5km from the historic Falun mine, continue to build on our thesis that the Falun system is much bigger than what was initially mined.”
The success of the two drill holes provides significant encouragement to progress with the design of a comprehensive program to continue exploration at Falun, Sennitt says.
“Alicanto has now identified two high quality projects at Falun and Sala which provide significant upside and optionality for Alicanto shareholders.”
Drilling continues at Sala
The drill rig has now returned to Sala while further workplans are progressed at Falun for further exploration activity, including follow up drilling.
Drilling at Sala will initially test high priority targets in the vicinity of the Sala mine targeting structural analogues of the Sala system, which historically produced 200Moz of high-grade silver at up to 7,000g/t Ag.
This article was developed in collaboration with Alicanto Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
