West Coast Silver (ASX: WCE) has had a perfect start to the maiden exploration campaign at its new Elizabeth Hill silver project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
The program’s first two holes have intersected shallow, high-grade silver, helping to support Elizabeth Hill’s rating as one of Australia’s highest-grade silver projects.
Highlight hits from the initial holes include 5 metres at 2,822 grams per tonne silver from 26m, including 2m at 6,951g/t from 27m.
Company name-change
West Coast completed the acquisition of the Elizabeth Hill project in May, at which time the company also changed its name from Errawarra Resources.
“To intersect high-grade silver from surface in our first two holes is a tremendous result and validates our belief in the near-surface potential at Elizabeth Hill,” executive director Bruce Garlick said.
The company plans to continue the diamond drill program at Elizabeth Hill with further holes to test down-plunge and extensional targets.
Improved understanding
West Coast has elected to systematically log drill core from both holes, with particular attention being paid to structural and lithological features to improve the geological understanding of the silver mineralisation.
Core recovery has been in excess of 95% and successful core orientation has allowed the company to make detailed structural measurements of the near-surface mineralisation.
West Coast has sent the half-core samples to the lab for confirmatory laboratory assays, which it expects to receive within six to eight weeks.
Unidentified structural trends
The initial two holes have successfully traversed a sparsely drilled section of the deposit, highlighting previously unidentified structural trends.
West Coast will now use the information gathered from these holes to enable it to make key decisions for the remainder of the drill program.
The company has recently concluded its regional field work including soil sampling, with all samples out for assessment.
Lab results are arriving progressively, with West Coast building a consolidated model to define its next steps.
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