Pic: John W Banagan / Stone via Getty Images
Alicanto ready to ramp up Scandinavian drilling on back of successful June quarter
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With $4.5 million in the bank plus funds to come in from the sale of its Guyana assets, Alicanto Minerals is well stocked to ramp up the first modern exploration campaign on its silver and copper-gold assets in Sweden’s rich Bergslagen mining district.
Having sold its Arakaka gold project in Guyana to Canada’s Virgin Gold Corporation for an initial C$750,000, Alicanto Minerals (ASX:AQI) is now dutifully exploring its Sala Silver Mine, where the company began a 3000m maiden drill program earlier this month.
Alicanto has mobilised a second drill rig, with early signs from the program looking positive.
The first hole in the diamond drill campaign hit Sala-style sulphide mineralisation in the Prince Lode including 140m down dip of an historic intersection of 37.2m @ 50g/t Ag & 6.1% Zn and 15.9m @ 157 g/t Ag & 4.2% Zn.
Results from the old-timers at Sala are even more encouraging. The project was once the largest silver producer in Europe, turning out a massive 200Moz of the metal to 1908 at grades of 1244g/t and sometimes as high as 7000g/t.
It also produced 35,000t of lead at 1-2% and briefly produced zinc at an average grade of 12% later in the 1900’s. The scale of opportunity is clear when you consider the mine was closed after a brief period reopened after 1951, with miners at the time believing the deposit to have been closed off at the 320m mark.
That does not appear to be the case, with previous drilling demonstrating the deposit remains open to the north and at depth.
Visible silver, lead and zinc mineralisation was intersected over broad intervals in both current drill holes with the zones having similar characteristics to those seen within the historic Sala mine.
Greater Falun
In May, Alicanto reported intersecting semi-massive sulphide skarn mineralisation with visual chalcopyrite in the second hole drilled at the Stone Lake target within the Greater Falun copper-gold project in Sweden.
Located around 100km from Sala, drilling at Stone Lake returned an assay of 5.92% Cu, 4.6ppm Ag from 124.2m-124.47m, as part of an interval grading 1.92% Cu, 1.3ppm Ag over 0.92m.
Alicanto views Stone Lake as having the key features required for intrusion-related, polymetallic skarn mineralisation.
That means it is consistent with the geological model Alicanto has developed for Greater Falun.
Stone Lake is located less than 10km northwest of the historic Falun deposit which produced a tidy 28 Mt at high grades of 4.0% Cu, 4.0 g/t Au, 35 g/t Ag, 5.0% Zn and 2.0% Pb.
It is now interpreted by Alicanto geologists as a “tight” polymetallic skarn deposit, with a number of targets similar to Stone Lake across the Greater Falun project.
Both Greater Falun and Sala sit within the Bergslagen mining district, near the world-leading Garpenberg underground zinc mine with all three viewed by AQI geologists as being polymetallic skarn systems created at the same time around 2 Billion years ago.
Alicanto well stocked to fund drilling
According to its quarterly cashflow report, Alicanto spent almost $1.2 million exploring its Scandinavian assets in the June quarter and is well stocked to continue that work.
It has $4.5 million in the bank and is due to add another C$750,000 in the initial proceeds of the Arakaka sale once the conditions of the sale are satisfied.
Alicanto remains exposed to exploration success from Virgin Gold Corporation on the Arakaka tenements and could receive up to C$4 million worth of shares with four $1 million milestones being triggered at 500,000oz intervals should Virgin outline up to 2Moz of resources at the project.
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.
