Special Report: Alicanto has discovered a 14km-long system prospective for high-grade, bulk-tonnage copper-gold at Wolf Mountain. The explorer says there’s early stage similarities with the mammoth 39-million-tonne a year Aitik mine in Northern Sweden.

Wolf Mountain is part of Alicanto’s (ASX:AQI) flagship Oxberg and Naverberg volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) projects, in Sweden’s highly endowed Bergslagen mining district.

VMS deposits are rich in base and precious metals like copper, zinc, lead, gold and silver.

Because these deposits tend to ‘cluster’ together, VMS camps can often be mined for a very, very long time.

READ: Alicanto Minerals is in “monster VMS territory” as it builds momentum in Sweden

So far, early stage mapping and sampling by Alicanto at Wolf Mountain has identified numerous, sub-parallel lines of workings over more than a kilometre with rock chips grading up to 11.9 per cent.

These high-grade rock chip samples were previously thought to be part of a wide system of ‘copper stringers’ feeding VMS deposits in the area.

But Alicanto now believes these copper stringers are most likely part of a large scale +14km-long hydrothermal system.

Alicanto says it displays similar characteristics to Aitik, Sweden’s largest open-pit copper mine, which made owner Boliden about $375m profit for 2018.

In response, Alicanto will increase its ground position at Bergslagen to more than 130sqkm to cover this newly identified system.

“The company has secured an additional 80sqkm of tenure, bringing a third project into the company’s portfolio in Sweden, Wolf Mountain and the total tenure in the Bergslagen region to more than 130sqkm,” Alicanto chief executive officer Peter George says.

“This is an exciting time for the company with results from the maiden 1000m, first pass, diamond drill programtargeting our high-grade copper-gold-zinc-lead and silver VMS prospects eagerly anticipated.”

This includes testing for extensions to the historic high-grade Skyttgruvan mine, which produced at an incredible 38 per cent zinc.

The Alicanto team is also hard at work with geophysical experts reinterpreting all of the historical and existing geophysical data in the region.

“With today’s technology and computing power we expect to deliver new targets for the next phase of exploration and drilling on the project areas,” George says.

“Further geophysical surveys are being planned at the moment and we will inform the market of these as we proceed.”

In addition, results from a 12,000m diamond drilling program at the Arakaka gold project in Guyana — fully funded by major gold producer NordGold SE — are anticipated very soon.

 

This story was developed in collaboration with Alicanto, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This story does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.