WCE - Technical review defines silver project as a potential "5-Element" silver system
Our silver exploration Investment West Coast Silver (ASX: WCE) just released a technical review of its silver project in WA.
WCE owns 70% of the project, one of the highest grade silver mines to ever operate in Australia.
It last produced ~1.2M ounces at ~2,194g/t silver before shutting in 2000 - not because the silver ran out, but because the price had collapsed to ~US$5/oz.
In April, WCE defined a 2.8M ounce JORC resource at 617g/t silver, and the deposit remains open.
We are Invested to see the old mine restarted AND to make new silver discoveries across the broader project area.
Today WCE released the results of a technical review by specialist consultant David Lewis who is interpreting the project as a potential 5-Element silver system.
Meaning instead of just silver it could also host arsenic, cobalt, nickel and bismuth.
The same deposit style behind some of the major silver districts around the world like:
- Cobalt, Canada (~550M ounces produced),
- Freiberg/Erzgebirge, Germany (~300M ounces) and
- Kongsberg, Norway (~40M ounces).
The key takeaway for us is that IF correct, WCE’s deposit style is one where there is a tendency to form in clusters of similar deposits along major structures.
We already know WCE’s existing resource is very high grade - and IF this new interpretation is correct that could mean there are other similar style deposits across WCE’s ground:
(source)
A big reason we Invested was the chance of new discoveries
When we Invested in WCE, it wasn't only about the old mine - it was about the ~180km² WCE has consolidated along the Munni Munni Fault, and the chance of finding more Elizabeth Hills.
We've called this a potential "string of pearls" and so has WCE (taken from the recent presentation):
(source)
So today's review supports that idea of the geological framework.
WCE already has regional prospects lined up too, Maitland to the north and Elizabeth Hill South to the south (amongst others) so only the drill bit will tell if these turn into discoveries.
(source)
What we want to see next from WCE
Recently, WCE released an updated presentation here.
It’s always good to see a Gantt chart showing what’s ahead in these presentations - a one pager on what to expect next.
(source)
The three things we are most looking out for are:
- The RC drill campaign on the targets to the north of the Elizabeth Hill Mine (happening now).
- The diamond drilling going for at depth extensions to the Elizabeth Hill mine (also underway).
- Geophysics across the broader project area
And then all of that data rolling into what we expect to be an updated JORC resource before the Scoping Study before the end of the year, expected to get underway in Q4.
