Interim Results

RNS Number : 5778N

Alien Metals Limited

30 September 2021

 

Trading Symbols

AIM: UFO

FWB: I3A1

30 September 2021

Alien Metals Ltd

("Alien" or "the Company")

Unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2021

Alien Metals Ltd ("Alien" or the "Company") is pleased to announce its financial results for the six months ended 30 June 2021. The full interim results, with accompanying Notes, is available on the Company's website www.alienmetals.uk

Dan Smith, Chairman of Alien, commented: "The first 6-months of calendar 2021 have seen a number of positive developments for Alien. The Company has continued to advance its understanding of the Hamersley iron ore projects, which has seen two successful drilling programmes executed at the Hancock DSO prospect, with the Company having just released its maiden inferred JORC compliant resource with plenty of upside potential remaining on both tenements. Throughout the period we have also seen the benefits of our detailed data compilation at the Elizabeth Hill silver project, with the generation of a number of near-mine high-priority exploration targets and scale potential for the historic Elizabeth Hill silver deposit and have commenced an inaugural drilling programme at the project.

Whilst Capstone Mining Corp decided not to proceed with the farm-in JV with the Company in June this year, the Company continues to see potential in the Donovan 2 copper-gold project in Mexico. In July, Alien advised that it had commenced an independent review for planning the next phase of exploration at the project.

In addition to driving value in our existing portfolio of assets, we continue to be presented with a number of potential acquisition opportunities across a range of commodities and geographies." 

Bill Brodie Good, CEO & Technical Director, commented: " We are really pleased to have delineated in excess of 10Mt of DSO iron ore with our initial MRE at Hancock. The initial Inferred JORC compliant resource stands at 10.4Mt @ 60.4% Fe including 7.8Mt @ 60.1% at the Sirius Extension target, 1.5Mt @ 61.2% at the Ridge E target and 1.1Mt @ 61.9% Fe at the Ridge C target. The Mineral Resource Statement ("MRE") has been restricted to material that falls within an optimised open pit shell and within the tenement boundary.   Low levels of deleterious elements indicated that Hancock could produce high-quality Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) product.

Ridges E and C are only partially tested to date, and the Company feels there is considerable potential to define further DSO grade material. With only a quarter of the Western Ridges targets tested to date, we believe there is considerable scope to grow the DSO resource over the next 6 months.

We are pushing ahead on the scoping study work with Mining Plus and continued planning for the Phase 3 drilling programme.

A recently commissioned inaugural drilling programme at Elizabeth Hill has returned multiple occurrences of visible silver in drill core recovered from shallow drilling completed to date with also visible copper mineralisation and significant sulphides also identified in core associated with copper and nickel mineralisation. The drilling has so far confirmed the Company's geological interpretation that the original Elizabeth Hill silver deposit appears to be associated with a much larger polymetallic mineralised system. This programme is ongoing but to date has been very encouraging.

Drill permits are being applied for in Mexico to further test targets the Company believes were not fully tested on Donovan 2 and also to test the known mineralised silver systems at Los Campos and San Celso silver projects. The pandemic has caused considerable upheaval in Mexico, hence the unusual delay, but the Company has continued to work on completion of the necessary paperwork in order to be fully compliant for the initial drilling planned. Our in-country team has been working with the local environmental agencies, the local landowners and stakeholders to obtain these official drilling permits."

Strategy

Alien Metals' objective is to create a multi-commodity portfolio of mining projects in jurisdictions with established mining communities, stable political backgrounds, and where strong operational controls can be assured.

The Group has operated in Mexico for over ten years, during which time it has established long-term relationships with local government, communities, and key stakeholders. The Company has retained consultants who have significant exploration and mining experience and have worked with the Company for many years. Alien also has excellent contacts in Australia who are able to provide technical support for the current projects going forward.

Alien Metals' geological experts assess and identify projects for the potential to host significant economic mineralised systems. Wherever possible, the projects are acquired on a low-cost option basis whilst preliminary exploration is undertaken to assess the merits of further work.

The Company has continued to evaluate exploration and mining projects in jurisdictions they are already working in as well as new ones during the first half of 2021 including West Africa, Europe and Australia. To date none of these evaluations led to the Company making an acquisition in this period as they did not reach the Company's criteria.

Where preliminary studies evidence sufficient mineralisation, increasingly comprehensive studies will be undertaken with a view to delineating a compliant mineral resource estimate in readiness of potential sale of the asset to a producing mining company, at which time a significant premium over its acquisition and development cost may be justified.

Financial highlights

As at 30 June 2021, the Company had total assets of US$8.5 million (2020:  US$1.6 million), of which US$3.7 million (2020: US$0.7 million) was cash. The Company had total liabilities of US$0.2 million (2020:  US$0.1 million), of which US$0.2 million were current liabilities (2020:  US$0.1 million).

In the six months ended 30 June 2021 the Company made an operating loss of US$0.8 million (2020:  US$0.4 million) and a loss per share of US$0.0002 (2020:  US$0.0003).

Overview of operations

During the first half of 2021, the Company has undertaken multiple exploration programmes mainly in Australia, including: airborne geophysical surveys, rock-chip and soil sampling, trenching and RC drilling.

As at 30 June 2021, the Company holds a 51% interest (moving to 90%) in the Hamersley Iron ore projects in Australia, a 100% interest in the high-grade Elizabeth Hill Silver project in Australia, and 8 fully owned mining concessions in Mexico. An initial LOI to acquire the Andromeda tenement adjacent to San Celso Project in Mexico is also in place.

Iron Ore Projects

Hancock Ranges Project - (51%, acquiring 90%)

The Hancock Ranges Iron Ore Project. E47/3954, is within 20kms of the Newman township and borders licences held by Fortescue Metals Group, Hancock Prospecting, BHP Billiton (Mount Whaleback), Hope Downs and Brockman Mining.

In May and June 2021, the Company announced a number of high-grade iron ore drilling results at Hancock, including 103m @ 61.79% Fe from surface (Hole AM21RC001 048). In September 2021 the Company announced its maiden Inferred JORC compliant resource of 10.4Mt @ 60.4% Fe including 7.8Mt @ 60.1% at the Sirius Extension target, 1.5Mt @ 61.2% at the Ridge E target and 1.1Mt @ 61.9% Fe at the Ridge C target. 

Brockman Iron Project - (51%, acquiring 90%)

This tenement hosts part of the historic BHP Deposit 20 iron ore target and the historic BHP Deposit 19 Fe target sits on the south-eastern boundary.

This tenement is dominated by the Brockman Iron Formation which underlies the majority of the tenement area. Recent alluvial cover is prevalent and covers the indicated Brockman Iron Formation.

BHP, as part of their much larger regional programme, identified these two 'deposits' from a combination of mapping and surface rock chip sampling.

Silver projects

Elizabeth Hill (100%)

The Elizabeth Hill project is situated approximately 45 km south of Karratha in the 61,000 km2 Achaean Pilbara Block of the Pilbara Craton.  The Project is well located, lying 40 km from the deep-water port at Dampier and 8 km from rail infrastructure.

The Elizabeth Hill Silver Project was mined between 1998 and 2000 via underground mining, primarily between the 62 m and 102 m levels.  Silver production totalled approximately 16,800 tonnes of ore grading 2,195 g/t Ag (70.24 oz/t Ag) generating 1,170,000 ounces Ag, including some very large specimens of native silver. 

Munni Munni North (100%)

The Munni Munni North exploration licence covers some 117 km2 and wraps itself around the Elizabeth Hill mining licence. It contains numerous prospects with anomalous copper, nickel and Platinum Group metals such as platinum and palladium. The Company carried out a regional airborne geophysical survey and detailed interpretation programme in early 2021 to help delineate targets for next stage exploration and priority definition. Ove 20 targets were defined by this work including at least 15 within the Munni Munni North tenement.

Necessary Native Title and access documentation is currently being processed to enable the commencement of more detailed exploration on the ground within the tenement.

Los Campos project (100%)

The Los Campos project comprises four concessions covering an area of approximately 500 hectares and is located on the south side of the city of Zacatecas and bounds the Endeavour Silver El Compas silver mine. The property encompasses at least two high grade silver bearing veins that were partially mined underground in colonial times. The Los Campos vein and the San Rafael vein present excellent targets with the recent considerable rise in the price and demand of silver and the project is easily accessible from the centre of the City of Zacatecas.

The Los Campos vein systems have been identified along a strike distance of over 3km and to depths exceeding 100m. Historic geological mapping and sampling has identified the potential for additional veins running either parallel or nearly parallel to the Los Campos vein and the Company has yet to drill test them to understand their full potential.

San Celso project (100%)

The 88-hectare San Celso project is located in the historic mining district of Pánfilo Natera-Ojocaliente and hosts 2 historic underground mines from the colonial times. There are two main mineralised veins: the San Celso and Las Cristinitas veins with recent exploration carried out by the Company during 2019 and 2020 confirmed the high-grade potential of this project, with recently reviewed historic underground sampling in the San Celso mine included a 4.65m interval at >1,000 g/t Ag including 1.05m at 2,683 g/t Ag, 78.2 oz/t Ag.

Drilling is planned as the next stage of exploration on this project and the necessary permitting is currently being sought.

Copper / gold project

Donovan 2 project

The Company's 750-hectare Donovan 2 project is located to the southeast of Zacatecas city and in close proximity to Alien's portfolio of other wholly owned projects along the Mexican precious and base metals belt. The Teck Resources San Nicolás copper zinc deposit and Minera Frisco El Coronel gold mine are both located within 25km.

Alien Metals' preliminary exploration programme on this project, has identified several areas that exhibit pathfinder indicators of volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS)-style mineralisation, and ground magnetic geophysics and induced polarisation have confirmed indications of sub-surface VMS-style mineralisation.

Further to the work carried out by Capstone while they were managing and funding the project, Alien is completing a complete review of all available data and planning to carry out a limited drilling programme based on in-house targeting once necessary documentation is completed. With grab samples taken from inside an old water well returning over 3% copper, the Company still believes this property contains significant potential.

Future outlook

The Company is looking towards further advancing its existing portfolio of prospective silver and copper/gold projects in Mexico and silver and iron ore projects in Australia, as well as seeking joint venture opportunities. Reviews are ongoing for adding projects to the Company portfolio and also finding partners for existing projects to support future work and development.

Notice of no auditor review of interim financial information

The interim unaudited consolidated financial information for the six month period ended 30 June 2021 has been prepared by and is the responsibility of the Company's management.

 

Consolidated statement of comprehensive income

For the six months ended 30 June 2021

(tabular amounts expressed in thousands of US dollars unless otherwise stated)

	Unaudited six months ended 30 June 2021	Unaudited six months ended 30 June 2020	Audited year ended 31 December 2020
Continuing operations
Administrative expenses	(815)	(417)	(1,223)
Total administrative expenditure	(815)	(417)	(1,223)
Operating loss	(815)	(417)	(1,223)
Net interest (expense)/ income	1	1	(3)
Loss from continuing operations	(816)	(416)	(1,226)
Loss for the period attributable to equity shareholders of the parent	(816)	(416)	(1,226)
Other comprehensive income
Foreign exchange translation differences recognised directly in equity Movement in equity instrument	175 -	(107) -	362 40
Other comprehensive income for the year	175	(107)	402
Total comprehensive income for the year attributable to equity shareholders of the parent	(641)	(523)	(824)
Basic and diluted loss per share ($/share)	(0.0002)	(0.0003)	(0.0005)

Consolidated statement of financial position

For the six months ended 30 June 2021

(tabular amounts expressed in thousands of US dollars)

	Note	Unaudited 30 June 2021	Unaudited 30 June 2020	Audited 31 December 2020
Assets
Non-current assets
Intangible assets	2	4,818	764	3,641
Property, plant and equipment		1	-	-
Financial asset investments		40	-	40
Total non-current assets		4,859	764	3,681
Current assets
Trade and other receivables		152	146	135
Cash and cash equivalents		3,725	697	5,627
Total current assets		3,877	843	5,762
Total assets		8,736	1,607	9,443
Equity attributable to equity shareholders of the parent
Share capital	3	65,200	57,808	65,181
Warrant reserve	3	867	709	872
Share-based payment reserve	3	1,057	1,121	1,033
Equity investment reserve		(232)	(255)	(232)
Foreign exchange translation reserve	3	2,424	1,763	2,249
Accumulated losses		(60,768)	(59,628)	(59,957)
Total equity		8,548	1,518	9,146
Liabilities
Trade and other payables		188	89	297
Total current liabilities		188	89	297
Total equity and liabilities		8,736	1,607	9,443

Consolidated statement of cash flows

For the six months ended 30 June 2021

(tabular amounts expressed in thousands of US dollars)

	Unaudited six months ended 30 June 2021	Unaudited six months ended 30 June 2020	Audited year ended 31 December 2020
Cash flows from operating activities
Loss before tax from continuing operations	(816)	(416)	(1,126)
Adjustments for non-cash items:
Depreciation and amortisation	-	1	1
Exchange difference	70	1	5
Net interest expense / (income)	(1)	(1)	3
Equity-settled share-based payment transactions	25	6	24
Operating cash flows before movements in working capital	(722)	(409)	(1,193)
(Increase) / decrease in trade and other receivables	(9)	(37)	(70)
Increase / (decrease) in trade and other payables	80	(41)	176
Cash used in operating activities	(651)	(487)	(1,087)
Cash flows from investing activities
Interest received/ (paid)	(1)	(2)	(3)
Purchase of intangible assets	(1,159)	(83)	(590)
Cash used in investing activities	(1,160)	(85)	(593)
Cash flows from financing activities
Proceeds from issue of share capital	-	1,250	6,185
Proceeds from exercised options and warrants	18	-	971
Issue costs	-	(75)	(371)
Loan issued	-	(62)	-
Cash from financing activities	18	1,113	6,785
Net (decrease)/increase in cash and cash equivalents	(1,793)	541	5,105
Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period/year	5,627	166	166
Effect of exchange rate fluctuations on cash held	(109)	(10)	356
Cash and cash equivalents at end of period/year	3,725	697	5,627

Consolidated statement of changes in equity

For the six months ended 30 June 2021

(tabular amounts expressed in thousands of US dollars)

For the six months ended 30 June 2021

Unaudited	Share capital	Warrant reserve	Share based payment reserve	Equity investment reserve	Foreign exchange translation reserve	Accumulated losses	Total
Balance: 1 January 2020	65,182	872	1,033	(232)	2,249	(59,957)	9,146
Loss for the period	-	-	-	-	-	(816)	(816)
Foreign exchange	-	-	-	-	175	-	175
Total comprehensive income	-	-	-	-	175	(816)	(641)
Shares issued	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Share issue costs	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Share options issued	-	-	24	-	-	-	24
Warrants issued	18	(5)	-	-	-	5	18
Balance: 30 June 2020	65,200	867	1,057	(232)	2,424	(60,768)	8,548

For the six months ended 30 June 2020

Unaudited	Share capital	Warrant reserve	Share based payment reserve	Equity investment reserve	Foreign exchange translation reserve	Accumulated losses	Total
Balance: 1 January 2020	56,814	261	1,121	(272)	1,887	(59,212)	599
Loss for the period	-	-	-	-	-	(416)	(416)
Foreign exchange	-	-	-	17	(124)	-	(107)
Total comprehensive income	-	-	-	17	(124)	(416)	(523)
Shares issued for cash	1,517	-	-	-	-	-	1,517
Share issue costs	(75)	-	-	-	-	-	(75)
Share options issued	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Warrants issued	(448)	448	-	-	-	-	-
Balance: 30 June 2020	57,808	709	1,121	(255)	1,763	(59,628)	1,518

For the year ended 31 December 2020

Audited	Share capital	Warrant reserve	Share based payment reserve	Equity investment reserve	As restated Foreign exchange translation reserve	Accumulated losses	As restated Total
Balance: 1 January 2020	56,814	261	1,121	(272)	1,887	(59,212)	599
Loss for the year	-	-	-	-	-	(1,226)	(1,226)
Foreign exchange	-	-	-	-	362	-	362
Movement in equity instrument	-	-	-	40	-	-	40
Total comprehensive income	-	-	-	40	362	(1,226)	(824)
Shares issued	6,185	-	-	-	-	-	6,185
Share issue costs	(371)	-	-	-	-	-	(371)
Shares issued to settle creditors	6	-	-	-	-	-	6
Exercise of share options	46	-	(55)	-	-	55	46
Share based payment	-	-	24	-	-	-	24
Share options lapsed	-	-	(57)	-	-	57	-
Project acquisitions	2,230	-	-	-	-	-	2,230
Fair value of warrants issued	(653)	981	-	-	-	-	328
Exercise of warrants	924	(369)	-	-		369	924
Balance: 31 December 2020	65,181	872	1,033	(232)	2,249	(59,957)	9,146

The consolidated financial information has been approved by the Company's directors.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) 596/2014.

For further information please contact:

Alien Metals Limited Bill Brodie Good, Technical Director St James's Corporate Services, Company Secretary Tel: [phone]
Beaumont Cornish Limited (Nomad) James Biddle/ Roland Cornish www.beaumontcornish.com Tel: [phone]
Yellow Jersey PR (Financial PR) Sarah Hollins / Joe Burgess / Matthew McHale [e-mail] Tel: [phone]
Turner Pope Investments (TPI) Limited (Joint Broker) Andy Thacker/ Zoe Alexander Tel [phone]

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains certain "forward-looking information". All statements, other than statements of historical fact that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future are deemed forward-looking information.

This forward-looking information reflects the current expectations or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to the Company as well as certain assumptions. Forward-looking information is subject to a number of significant risks and uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking information, and even if such actual results are realised or substantially realised, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on the Company.

Any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking information are reasonable, forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such information due to the inherent uncertainty therein.

 

END

 

 

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