Drilling both new and old show that silver riches abound at Alicanto’s Sala project

Alicanto’s new step-out drilling and recently identified historical core have resulted in the definition of high-grade silver and zinc zones outside the current 9.7Mt resource at its Sala project in Sweden.

This is of course indicative of there being plenty of potential to further increase resources at the project.

Highlighting just what Alicanto Minerals (ASX:AQI) has to work with, re-assaying of the historical core returned results of up to 1.1m grading 1,326 grams per tonne (g/) silver, 0.8% zinc and 6.6% lead as well as 3.9m at 737g/t silver, 1.2% zinc and 11.8% lead, at the Bronäs target about 600m north of the Prince Lode and near the historic Bronäs mine.

Meanwhile, the company’s first diamond drill holes have identified the Finntorpet target about 575m west of the Prince Lode with assays returning multiple zones of mineralisation.

These include:

  • 7.5m at 31g/t silver and 0.6% lead from 14.7m, 5.6m at 39g/t silver and 1.3% lead from 111.1m, 1.9m at 65g/t silver and 1.1% lead from 121.1m, and 1.2m at 87g/t silver and 1.1% zinc from 495.9m (SAL22-39)
  • 2.9m at 42g/t silver and 0.9% lead from 266.7m (SAL22-38)

And it is not just step-out drilling that struck mineralisation outside the current resource envelope.

Drilling at the Prince Lode has also returned significant mineralisation with hole SAL23-40 intersecting 3.8m at 259g/t silver, 0.2% zinc and 8.6% lead.

“The most recent drill program at Sala has been focused on identifying more of the high-grade silver and zinc which drove the success of the original Sala mine which produced over 200Moz of silver at an average grade of 1,244g/t silver and up to 7,000g/t silver,” managing director Rob Sennitt said.

“These results continue to support our belief that we will be able to extend the current Resource.

“They also highlight the potential to enhance the Resource through the presence of high-grade silver which would ultimately create significant value for Alicanto shareholders.”

 

Recent drill results

Alicanto’s recently concluded diamond drill program at Sala includes two holes completed to the southwest of the Prince Lode, which identified a broad zone with moderate Sala style galena-silver mineralisation at the Finntorpet target.

While no high-grade mineralisation was encountered, the results are significant in that they show the presence of Sala-style mineralisation in what has been interpreted as a significant and previously untested fault structure, the Hyttskogen Fault Zone.

As an indicator of just how significant this could be, the Sala Main Fault is interpreted as a splay originating from the Hyttskogen Fault.

Meanwhile, two holes drilled in the southern extension of the Prince Lode have intersected high grade galena-silver mineralisation, supporting the company’s previous interpretation of this area constituting the eastern limb of a F2 fold and extending the previously known mineralisation to the south.

 

Re-assaying historical drill holes

Meanwhile, the re-assaying of recently recovered drillholes from the Avesta Jernverk era that cover an area immediately north of the historic Sala silver mine and in the vicinity of the Bronäs Mine indicate the presence of a significant mineralisation north of Sala.

Unsurprisingly, the company now considers this area to be a high priority target for expanding the Prince Resource to the north.

The highest grade drill hit from these holes was drilled from underground and intersected a parallel structure to the Sala mine immediately in the north.

At Bronäs, the intersection of 3.9m at 737g/t silver was one of two underground drillholes drilled to the north which indicated the presence of high-grade galena-silver style mineralisation outside of the old workings.

The historical drillholes also indicated that the western continuation of Bronäs is open though this mineralisation appears to be wide with moderate grades.

Prince style mineralisation may also be present to the north where drilling intersected shallow to sub cropping mineralisation while two holes at Dammgruvan and Wibergsgruvan indicate the presence of northwest-southeast trending Sala-style repeat structures linking up to Bronäs.

 

Current and upcoming activity

Alicanto is now undertaking down-hole induced polarisation surveys to test for mineralised extensions and new mineralised zones.

Once these results are interpreted and reviewed, the company’s focus will shift back to the recently acquired Falun copper-gold-zinc-silver Project in preparation for upcoming geophysical and drilling programs.

 

 

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.

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