Alien Metals (LON: UFO) share prices go up after completion of mining program at Hamersley

Summary

• Alien Metals completed the follow-up and comprehensive geological mapping and sampling programmes at its Hamersley Iron Ore Projects.
• The mapping has been completed over four of the five priority prospects that have been targeted as part of the site visit.
• The mining company said that additional prospective iron ore units have been mapped at the Brockman Iron project.
• The programme undertaken has validated the maiden exploration targets, across both projects that were announced earlier.

Alien Metals Limited (LON:UFO) recently completed the geological mapping and sampling at its Hamersley iron ore projects. It is to be recalled that on 22 September, the minerals exploration company said that the programme at the project was underway. The company shares have been rising consistently since the announcement has come in. They moved up from a value of GBX 0.665 on 8 October 2020 to GBX 0.820 on 12 October 2020.

Alien Metals said that it finished a comprehensive geological mapping and sampling over four of the five priority prospects that have been targeted as part of the site visit. The field observations specified that the BHP 19 and BHP 20 prospects might be part of the larger system. The mining firm also stated that additional prospective iron ore units have been mapped at the Brockman Iron project. The programme undertaken has validated the maiden exploration targets across both projects. 

Alien Metals said that it took around 95 samples across the projects. The assay results of these samples are expected by the end of October. The outcome of the sample assays and detailed mapping would help the company in preparing its maiden drilling campaign. The company noted that it recently concluded field programmes have shown satisfactory findings and further validates its exploration targets.  

With the confirmation of the recent research undertaken and the potential rise in estimated DSO (Direct Shipping Ore) mineralisation within both the tenements, the field work has helped to expand the earlier site visits. It is important to note that the field team has advised on how busy both areas were in terms of other companies operating in the region. Alien Metals felt that this advice played a crucial role in encouraging it to go ahead with both the projects.

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The two projects are located within the Hamersley Province of Western Australia. This area is well-known as one of the leading iron ore producing regions of the world.  Located in the west Hamersley Province, the Brockman Project is around 100 km northwest of Tom Price, Rio Tinto’s iron ore mining town and 90 km west of the Tom Price to Dampier mine railway. The second project is called the Hancock Ranges Project. This project is situated in the east Hamersley Province or 15 km north of Newman, which is the iron ore mining town of BHP.

The mining company covered two of the priority prospects in the Brockman Project by comprehensively navigating across and along strike of the prospects. Alien Metals considered more than 50 samples in addition to completing additional detailed mapping of the main units. The initial analysis has indicated the presence of a significant amount of the mineralised Brockman Iron Formation.

Alien Metals covered the two main prospects in the Hancock Project with the support of helicopters to transport the team directly into areas of the Kalgan prospect to potentially increase the field time against travel time. The company took in excess of 40 further samples to carry out a detailed and positive mapping.

Alien Metals has dispatched the entire samples generated to the Intertek Genalysis at Maddington, Western Australia and examined their basic iron ore package analysis with X-ray fluorescence (XRF) finish that comprises various elements.  This is similar to the analysis that was used in the last years due diligence site visit/ Alien Metals would maintain uniformity and comparability between these analyses.

Alien Metals’ silver footprint

On 1 October, Alien Metals announced that it will buy 117 square km of tenure neighboring and surrounding its Elizabeth Hill Silver Project in Western Australia along with associated historic technical data. The tenement consisted of various precious and base metal prospects identified by earlier operators. The acquisition remained subject to granting and ministerial consent.

The company said that the conditional purchase of this license added considerable exploration potential to its portfolio. In addition, it offered significant tenure to the Elizabeth Hill Silver Project area. This facilitated the mining company to work from a centralised location on various targets and commodities.

Financials of Alien Metals

At the end of September, Alien Metals released its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June. The company recorded an operating loss of US $0.4 million (2019:  US$0.6 million). In order to carry ahead with its various strategic plans, Alien Metals raised US$1.2 million before costs and expenses through private placements of its shares.  

As compared to US$1.2 million in 2019, the company had total assets of US$1.6 million, of which US$0.7 million was in cash (2019:  US$0.4 million). Its total liabilities were US$0.1 million as compared to US$0.1 million recorded in 2019.

Alien Metals said that the first half of this year remained challenging due to the pandemic-led crisis. The company was able to continue various work streams. It completed the IP Survey at the Donovan 2 copper-gold project and also took 51 per cent interest in the Hamersley iron ore projects.

Other key deliverables included undertaking underground sampling at its San Celso and Los Campos silver projects, besides completing detailed data compilation at Elizabeth Hill Silver and the Hamersley projects. Alien Metals planned to further advance its existing portfolio of prospective silver and copper/gold projects in Mexico and silver and iron ore projects in Australia. 

Stock performance 

Alien Metal is a company involved in exploration, development, and operation of mines. The company focuses on both precious and base metal commodities. The FTSE AIM ALL-Share listed mining company is committed to create a multi-commodity portfolio of mining projects.

On 12 October, the company’s stock (LON:UFO) was trading at £0.80, up 10.34 per cent from its Friday’s close of £0.73. The 52-week low high range was recorded as 0.07 and 0.90. With a market capitalisation of £22.30 million, the stock provided a positive return on price, which was plus 229.55 per cent on a year-to-date (YTD) basis. The total volume of shares traded at the time of reporting was recorded at 82,698,215.