We take a look at the latest drill results from the ASX resource explorer that look to be stoking investor interest.

What drill results were announced?

The Alicanto share price is soaring after the company reported "spectacular historic drilling results" at its Sala silver-lead-zinc project, located in Sweden. Alicanto noted the presence of exceptionally high grades of silver, zinc and lead.

The results come from drilling conducted in the 1970s by the previous project site owner, Boliden. The Swedish Geological Society only just released the assays publicly for the first time. The assays are derived from a total of 12,225 metres of shallow historical drilling.

Alicanto noted that the shallow mineralisation "highlights the significant potential of the Sala Project".

Some top historical intercepts include:

• 8m at 5.3% Zn and 40 g/t Ag, including 2.1m at 36.4% Zn
• 8m at 450 g/t Ag, 12.2% Zn, 7.2% Pb
• 7m at 42 g/t Ag, 11.6% Zn, 0.3% Pb

What did management say?

Commenting on the historic assays, Alicanto's managing director Peter George said:

The grades and widths of the mineralisation are spectacular and many of the intersections sit within the area we are currently targeting for our maiden JORC-compliant Resource. Not only will this data save us 5,000 metres of drilling, time and money, but the strength of the results will also help underpin our resource estimate.

When combined with the 200 million ounces [of] silver produced historically and the exceptional results we have been generating from our own drilling, it is clear that Sala is a world-class mineralised system with immense exploration upside.

The company anticipates its maiden JORC-compliant resource estimate at Sala in the first quarter of 2022.

Alicanto share price snapshot

The Alicanto share price has gained 45% so far in 2021. That handily beats the 11% year-to-date gain posted by the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO).

Over the past month Alicanto Minerals' shares have gained 33%.

The post Here's why the Alicanto (ASX:AQI) share price is rocketing 20% today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Alicanto is a mineral exploration company, focused on the exploration and development of a portfolio of gold projects in the prospective geological provinces of Guyana. Its geographical segments are spread across the most unlikely of bedfellows: Guyana, Australia and Sweden.

Let's take a look at what's behind the booming Alicanto share price today.

Alicanto's copper discoveries

Alicanto's recent high-grade copper assays are from its first holes at Stone Lake, in the Greater Falun Project in Sweden. All of the company's exploration activities have historically been located in Scandanavia, but now it's also operating a little further afield.

Its Falun assays report results of up to 5.92% copper and the mineralogy suggests drilling is close to the source.

Assays from drilling at Stone Lake have returned 5.92% copper grades and 4.6 parts-per-million (ppm) of silver from 124 metres to 124.4 metres. The hole also revealed the presence of native copper.

With copper prices currently at all-time highs, it's not surprising to see the Alicanto share price surging on the results.

Both holes drilled to date at Stone Lake intersected an intensely skarn-altered sequence of volcano-sedimentary rocks (hornfels) and interbedded limestones (marble-massive skarn) in contact with a strongly deformed granitoid.

For any geology nuts out there, skarn is very interesting as it's a volcanically affected rock that forms out of magma from volcanic explosions. Alicanto says that the "combination of high-grade mineralisation and the significant alteration footprint" underlines the area's prospectivity for copper-gold skarn mineralised bodies.

Follow-up geophysics, including ground magnetic surveys and down-hole electromagnetic surveys, are now underway in a bid to identify nearby copper-gold and polymetallic skarn mineralisation.

Management comments

Alicanto managing director Peter George said:

This is a highly promising result. The intersected mineralisation, together with its textbook skarn alteration, strongly indicates that we have identified another intrusion-related copper skarn system, less than 10km away from the world-class Falun deposit.

The semi-massive character of the intersected copper-skarn system, some 80m beneath historic workings with similar mineralisation, in combination with the most intense, proximal and prograde skarn alteration so far encountered at Greater Falun, highlights the potential for significant mineralisation nearby.

Alicanto share price snapshot

As a small-cap share, the Alicanto share price has shown a huge degree of volatility on the ASX. In the past two months alone, it's dropped by as much as 30%. In the past 12 months, however, it has gained around 94%. 

The post Alicanto (ASX:AQI) share price surges 8% on high-grade copper appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

What does Alicanto do?

Alicanto Minerals is an emerging mineral exploration company focused on creating shareholder wealth through exploration and discovery in the mining districts of Scandinavia. The company has multiple projects in Sweden, including the Greater Falun Project in the highly endowed Bergslagen mining district of Southern Sweden. The company mines minerals such as copper, gold, zinc, lead and silver.

What has been driving the Alicanto share price higher?

The company announced its quarterly activities report on 30 July. This release saw the Alicanto share price jump 10% as the miner announced progress on its Swedish projects. However, the real growth started a week later after a trading halt was announced.

What followed was the announcement that Alicanto is planning to raise $1.43 million by way of a private placement. Funds raised from the placement will be used for exploration activities in Sweden and Guyana and general working capital. Perhaps the news that got investors most excited, however, was the calibre of investor taking part in the placement.

The name Ray Shorrocks is well known around micro cap miners and it is he who will now chair the company. In 2016, explorer Bellevue Gold Ltd (ASX: BGL) acquired a tiny Western Australian gold project. This 'tiny' project has since seen the Bellevue share price return around 4900%. You may be wondering why this is relevant, and it is because Ray Shorrock was the investor behind this turnaround. So it is understandable that investors are once again excited by the prospect of a mining unicorn in his latest investment, Alicanto.

What now for Alicanto?

It was recently announced that drilling is set to start next month in Sweden. The program will target extensions to known mineralisation as part of a strategy to underpin a central processing hub in this mining area. The greater Falun area has never been properly explored as, through the area, was a VMS (volcanogenic massive sulfide) system, making mining futile. However, it is now believed that the dominant mineralisation is in fact copper and gold skarn with high grade by-products of silver, zinc and lead.

The Alicanto share price has been exploding this year and is up 521% from its March lows. At the time of writing, the Alicanto share price has smashed through its 52-week high and is sitting at 18 cents.

The post Alicanto share price exploding 20%, here's why appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.