Alicanto Minerals uncovers high-grade zinc, copper, lead and silver in Naverberg rock chips

Alicanto Minerals (ASX: AQI) has pinpointed more than 30km of zinc, lead, copper and silver strike at its Naverberg project in Sweden with recent rock chips returning high-grade assays of all four minerals.

The rock chip sampling unveiled up to 11% zinc, 4.43% copper, 4.03% lead and 56 grams per tonne silver.

The results are in line with historical rock chips including 26.1% zinc, 2.4% copper and 13.5% lead.

According to the company, the rock chips indicate multiple targets along 30km of strike from the historic Falun mine.

When in operation, 28 million tonnes of ore was mined at Falun and yielded average grades of 5% zinc, 4% copper, 2% lead, 34g/t silver and 4g/t gold.

Rock chip sampling at the nearby Oxberg project also unveiled high grade copper of 4.4% and 3.7% and build on historical samples of 16g/t gold, 11.9% copper and 9.4% zinc.

Limited previous drilling at Oxberg also returned 2.8m at 4.7% zinc, 2.2% lead and 89g/t silver; and 3.4m at 2.5% zinc, 1% lead and 11g/t silver.

Alicanto chief executive officer Peter George said the recent high-grade assays “strongly support” the company’s view that an underexplored, large-scale prospective mineralised system exists across Naverberg and Oxberg.

“We are very excited and are now focusing on advancing key prospects towards maiden drill testing in the coming weeks,” he added.

Oxberg and Naverberg

Oxberg and Naverberg are located within Sweden’s Bergslagen mining district, which currently hosts the operating Garpenberg mine which produced 33.49Mt at 5% zinc, 2.1% lead, 136g/t silver and 0.4g/t gold between 1957 and 2018.

The region also hosts the Zinkgruvan deposit which has a reserve of 46.9Mt at 9% zinc, 2% copper, 3.6% lead and 78.7g/t silver.

Alicanto noted the projects were “cherry picked” with the company’s team possessing more than 25 years’ experience in the area.

The company noted that Sweden was a tier one mining jurisdiction with low tax and regulation and world class infrastructure.

Alicanto is firming up a drilling program to begin at both projects in the latter half of the year.