The Alderan Resources Ltd (ASX: AL8) share price is lifting today after the mineral explorer announced it has kicked off its exploration drilling program for 2021.
At the time of writing, the Alderan share price is up 4.7% to 11 cents.
What's pushing the Alderan share price up?
The Alderan share price is pushing higher on news the company has started its first-pass drilling at Black Rock, Utah, in the United States.
The Black Rock target forms part of the Valley-Crossroads Project where Alderan is earning up to a 70% interest through a deal with another mining company, Tamra Mining.
The maiden drill program comes off the back of positive results received from its geological mapping and rock chip sampling. Mainly targeting copper and gold deposits, the company has begun drilling 3 holes with a depth of 1000m to be completed by next Monday.
Previous surface sampling and geological mapping indicated strong mineral and metals results. Most notably, chemical tests conducted recorded up to 4.6 g/t of gold, 10.15% of copper, 125 ppm of molybdenum, 522 ppm cobalt, and 4.3 ppm of tellurium.
In other news, the company said that assay results from a drilling program at the Detroit Project is due to be finished within 2 weeks. Alderan will plan for additional drilling at the project as well as start operations at its White Mountain epithermal gold project. The latter is expected to be concluded sometime during the March quarter.
Management commentary
Alderan managing director Peter Williams, hailed the new maiden drill program, saying:
Our initial surface work at Black Rock has demonstrated the target's potential to host copper-gold mineralisation. The interpretation of the depth potential, and in particular the thickening of the magnetic body with depth is compelling and we are looking forward to seeing what our initial drill program will deliver.
Our initial results will give us a better understanding of the target and help us plan more focused drilling over the coming months.
How has the Alderan share price performed?
Listing at 2.5 cents this time last year, the Alderan share price has achieved a 340% gain.
While the company's shares did tumble momentarily to 1.3 cents in April, the months following saw a strong rebound. In June, the Alderan share price reached a multi-year high of 21 cents ahead of its quarterly activities report.
