Alien Metals (AIM:UFO) said its joint venture partner at the Elizabeth Hill Silver Project, West Coast Silver, will begin its second-half diamond drilling programme in early to mid-October.
Elizabeth Hill is a high-grade silver project in Western Australia in which Alien holds a 30% free-carried interest, alongside a 7.0% equity stake in West Coast Silver through 30.5 million shares.
The programme comprises up to 18 diamond holes for approximately 1,800 metres, with drilling contractor West Core Drilling mobilising the week of 5 October and work continuing through early to mid-December.
Four workstreams make up the programme: infill drilling to support reclassification of Inferred resources to Indicated status, step-out drilling to test silver mineralisation west of the existing 2.8 million ounce resource, drilling to confirm continuity of the newly identified Elizabeth Hill Deeps high-grade zone, and holes testing the down-plunge extension beneath the deepest historic workings.
The Deeps zone is West Coast Silver's priority target, sitting on a structural trend separate from the main Munni Munni Fault Zone and remaining open to the east and south.
"The H2 2026 drilling program is designed to build on the upcoming November 2026 MRE update, with results from this new drilling to contribute to a further MRE update targeted for March 2027 and provide key technical inputs into the Q1 2027 Scoping Study," said West Coast Silver chief executive Sergei Smolonogov.
West Coast Silver's inaugural resource estimate, published in April, stood at 141,000 tonnes at 617 grams per tonne silver for 2.8 million ounces.
The company raised A$6 million in September to fund the drilling, metallurgical testwork and the scoping study.
A separate resource update remains scheduled for November, ahead of the March 2027 update incorporating the new drilling.