** Shares of Australia's West Coast Silver WCE.AX rise as much as 13.6% to A$0.25, their biggest intraday gain since Dec 29

** Silver explorer says assays returned exceptionally high grades of silver and broad zones of high-grade mineralisation at Elizabeth Hill in Western Australia

** Around 6.9 million shares change hands, nearly 1.7x the 30-day average

** WCE up 6.7% YTD

($1 = 1.4237 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Keshav Singh Chundawat in Bengaluru)

((Keshav.singhchundawat@thomsonreuters.com))