West Coast Silver has added a 70%-owned prospect immediately west of its Elizabeth Hill silver mine, with historical results pointing to silver, copper, nickel and palladium potential. The targets remain early-stage: the company plans data review, fieldwork and geophysics before deciding whether to drill.
- 70% interest in newly granted Prospecting Licence P47/2033
- Historical trenching returned 5m at 5.2g/t silver
- RC drilling recorded 1m at 11g/t silver
- Silver potential remains lightly tested and inconsistently assayed
- Scout drilling is conditional on further target definition
New licence fills a gap beside Elizabeth Hill
West Coast Silver Limited (ASX:WCE) has secured a 70% interest in Prospecting Licence P47/2033, placing the Elizabeth Hill West prospect directly beside the mining lease that hosts its historical Elizabeth Hill silver mine. GreenTech Holdings holds the remaining 30%.
The addition gives West Coast ground within 1km of the historical silver deposit and the mineralised Munni Munni Fault Zone. More importantly, the company says the previously incomplete land position contains coherent silver soil anomalies, structural targets and historical mineralisation along the contact between the Munni Munni Intrusion and the Cherratta Granitoid Complex.
Historical results provide the exploration hook
The strongest historical surface result cited by West Coast is 5 metres at 5.2 grams per tonne silver, alongside 19,000 parts per million copper and 220 parts per billion palladium. A reverse-circulation hole, EHRC11, returned 1 metre at 11g/t silver from 65 metres downhole.
Other historical work identified copper, nickel and palladium mineralisation, while combined soil datasets define silver anomalies associated with interpreted faults and the ultramafic-granite contact. Those results give the prospect a factual exploration base rather than leaving it as a purely conceptual target.
Silver case is promising but incomplete
The important qualification is that much of the earlier exploration targeted nickel, copper and platinum group elements rather than silver. West Coast says silver was not analysed in several historical drill holes and that only seven of 521 historical drill samples returned silver above detection limits.
The company also flags approximate trench intervals, variable historical sampling and unknown true widths. The reported intersections are downhole or along costean lengths, not confirmed true widths, and the historical dataset is being used to generate targets rather than support a mineral resource or economic assessment.
Three-stage work program precedes drilling
West Coast plans to begin by consolidating and reinterpreting historical drilling, trenching, geochemical and geophysical data, including reviewing holes and intervals that were never assayed for silver. Field mapping, validation and targeted surface sampling would then feed into structural and geological modelling.
The next stage may include induced polarisation, gravity, electromagnetic or CSAMT surveys across priority corridors. Only after that work, and subject to its results, would the company consider first-pass aircore or RC scout drilling. The immediate catalyst is therefore target definition, not a new drilling campaign.
Bottom Line?
The licence improves West Coast’s near-mine exploration position, but the investment case now depends on whether systematic re-assaying, fieldwork and geophysics convert scattered historical signals into drill-ready silver targets.
Questions in the middle?
- Will systematic silver re-assaying confirm that the historical anomalies extend beyond isolated samples and short intervals?
- Which structural or geophysical targets will West Coast rank highly enough to justify first-pass drilling?
- Can Elizabeth Hill West add meaningful mineralisation to the broader project without diverting resources from work at the existing deposit?