Alpha Exploration (ALEX.V) released the assay results from the Aburna drill program last week. The company reported on 14 of the 19 drilled holes and at least twelve of those holes encountered gold mineralization (the company reported on 12 holes in its table summarizing the ‘best’ intervals). Not only is that a phenomenal hit ratio for pretty much every gold project in the world, it is quite an achievement to hit gold in almost every hole on what really is a completely new discovery on a previously undrilled target.
Aburna
All holes were relatively shallow (with depths ranging from 60 to 222 meters) and the eye-catching result comes from hole 5 where the drill bit intersected 15 meters containing 5.85 g/t gold starting at a depth of just 6 meters downhole. There were more high-grade and relatively shallow intervals with for instance 10 meters of 5.24 g/t in hole 8 (drilled at the Celebration Hill prospect). And although it’s still too early to definitively define the true width of the intervals, Alpha Exploration estimates the TW to be 70-80% of the reported width.
Alpha Exploration still needs to report on the five final holes drilled at Aburna but we can say the drill program already is a success and the company’s decision to follow up on historical data which pointed out the existence of a small-scale mine exploited by Italian colonial miners was the right call. Earlier trenching programs indicated the potential size of the Aburna prospect is approximately 4,000 by 2,000 meters with two high-priority areas of interest: Hill 52 and Celebration Hill. Those two areas were drilled in Alpha’s most recent drill program and we are looking forward to the company’s plans to follow up on this discovery. The next step at the Aburna prospect will be to determine the strike length and width of the mineralization to see if the dots can be connected into an economical resource.
Waiting for more drill results
Although the Aburna prospect was drilled after the Tolegimja VMS target, the Aburna assay results are out first. So not only can we expect to see the results from an additional five holes at Aburna, we should also see the assay results from the Tolegimja VMS target pretty soon. Alpha Exploration has been very busy in the first few months of this year and hopefully the company can continue to advance its high priority prospects at the Kerkasha project.
Capital raise
Alpha Exploration is still working on a C$5M placement. A first tranche was closed in the first half of April and this allowed the company to raise C$1.4M by issuing just over 1.8 million units priced at 75 cents per unit. Each unit consists of cone common share of Alpha Exploration as well as ½ warrant exercisable for a period of 18 months at a price of C$1.125.
The cash injection was (and will be) welcome as Alpha Exploration ended the calendar year 2021 with a working capital deficit and the current raise should not only create some breathing room, but also hopefully allow the company to put an exploration budget together to follow up on the recent discoveries.
As explained in our previous report, we think Alpha Exploration is sitting on a very intriguing land package in Eritrea. Untouched by modern exploration methods, there still seems to be plenty of stuff to be found, and the recent discovery at Aburna confirms this.
Disclosure: The author has a small long position in Alpha Exploration. Alpha is a sponsor of the website. Please read our disclaimer.
