West Coast Silver will begin an 18-hole diamond drilling campaign at Elizabeth Hill in October, targeting resource upgrades, western extensions and a newly defined high-grade zone. The results are intended to feed Mineral Resource Estimate updates and a scoping study in 2027.
- Up to 18 diamond holes covering approximately 1,800 metres
- Four workstreams targeting resource confidence and potential extensions
- Elizabeth Hill Deeps zone remains open to the east and south
- Results planned to support March 2027 MRE and Q1 2027 Scoping Study
Four Drilling Targets at Elizabeth Hill
West Coast Silver Limited (ASX:WCE) is about to put the next phase of its Elizabeth Hill strategy into the ground, with up to 18 diamond holes planned across approximately 1,800 metres in Western Australia. West Core Drilling is scheduled to mobilise during the week of 5 October, with work expected to run through early to mid-December.
The campaign is not a single exploration bet. Six holes covering 510 metres will target lower-confidence areas within the existing resource, while eight holes totalling 640 metres will test silver mineralisation west of the current resource model. Two holes will examine the Elizabeth Hill Deeps zone, and another two will probe beneath the deepest historic workings.
Resource Upgrade Work Sits Alongside New Targets
The resource-development holes are intended to improve geological and grade confidence in selected Inferred Mineral Resources above the historic mine workings. That data could support a potential reclassification to Indicated status and help inform any future ore reserve evaluation, although neither outcome is assured by the planned drilling.
The western campaign will step into a broad zone of low-to-moderate grade silver mineralisation identified in granite outside the current 2.8 million ounce silver Mineral Resource Estimate block model. West Coast Silver says the new holes will test the limits and continuity of that mineralisation and assess whether it could be considered in future resource estimates. Some holes have been designed to serve more than one purpose, including testing shallow mineralisation in the upper portions of resource-development holes.
High-Grade Deeps Zone Faces Its Next Test
The most pointed exploration question sits below and east of the main Elizabeth Hill mineralised trend. West Coast Silver describes the Deeps zone as an approximately 50-metre-long, north-south-trending, subhorizontal structure on the granite-ultramafic contact, offset from the main Munni Munni Fault Zone and still open to the east and south.
Historical and recent drilling has produced high-grade intersections associated with the target, including 7 metres at 607 grams per tonne silver in hole UGD084, with 1 metre at 3,340 grams per tonne, and 3 metres at 524 grams per tonne in hole 26WCDD029. Those results are not a resource estimate, and the two planned Deeps holes are intended to establish whether the mineralisation has sufficient geometry and continuity to warrant further work.
Drilling Linked to 2027 Technical Milestones
The core will be logged and sampled for geotechnical, metallurgical and structural work as well as exploration. West Coast Silver says the new information will contribute to a further MRE update targeted for March 2027, while a separate MRE update remains scheduled for November 2026 and a first-pass Scoping Study is planned for the first quarter of 2027.
That timetable gives shareholders a sequence of potential catalysts, but also makes the distinction between activity and results important. The announcement contains no new assays, resource upgrade, project economics or production decision. Its immediate significance is that the company has defined a funded work program designed to convert geological hypotheses into data for resource and development studies.
Bottom Line?
The next test is execution: mobilisation, drilling and assays must show whether the western mineralisation and Deeps zone can add scale or confidence before the 2027 studies take shape.
Questions in the middle?
- Will the November 2026 MRE update change the size or confidence category of the existing resource?
- Can drilling confirm continuous high-grade mineralisation across the Elizabeth Hill Deeps zone?
- Will the western and down-plunge targets deliver enough continuity to enter a future resource estimate?