Western Mines Group says it has uncovered a “huge working nickel sulphide mineral system” at its burgeoning Mulga Tank nickel-copper-platinum group elements project in the Minigwal Greenstone Belt in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields.
The company today released results from a diamond drillhole (MTD026) that it says intercepted cumulative disseminated nickel sulphides over a total of 840m running 0.28 per cent nickel, 140 parts per million cobalt, 103ppm copper and 24 parts per billion platinum and palladium from 116m downhole.
Management says the remarkable 840m run contains eight broad intersections ranging in downhole width from 32m to 258m of disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation that range in grade between 0.24 per cent nickel and 0.40 per cent nickel and average 0.31 per cent overall.
MTD026 was our second EIS deep hole at Mulga Tank and certainly surpasses hole MTD023. We have discovered a huge working nickel sulphide mineral system within the Mulga Tank Ultramafic Complex. These assay results confirm the visual observations and clearly show over 800m of disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation. The system has a large footprint across the Complex and could host globally significant tonnes of Mt-Keith-style mineralisation - even in just the top couple of hundred metres. Western Mines Group managing director Dr Caedmon Marriott
The assay revelations show the top two longest intercepts, in order of increasing depth, are 158m at 0.27 per cent nickel, 136ppm cobalt, 70ppm copper and 19ppb platinum and palladium from 262m and 258m at 0.26 per cent nickel, 135ppm cobalt, 95ppm copper and 24ppb platinum and palladium from 792m.
The highest nickel grade identified lies within a separate intercept of 104m at 0.24 per cent nickel, 139ppm cobalt, 100ppm copper and 22ppb platinum and palladium from 500m that includes 16m at 0.4 per cent nickel, 175ppm cobalt, 157ppm copper and 45ppb platinum and palladium from 528m.
A near-surface zone of interest is indicated by another intercept of 130m at 0.31 per cent nickel, 136ppm cobalt, 122ppm copper and 24ppb platinum and palladium from 116m, which includes 13m at 0.35 per cent nickel, 142ppm cobalt, 301ppm copper, 65ppb platinum and palladium from 157m.
Western Mines says the shallow zone corresponds well with similar mineralisation at comparable depth that it has previously intercepted. It believes it forms a section line across the complex through a horizontal distance of about 2.3km and that economic mineralisation could exist to a vertical depth of about 250m.
Management has already considered that the zone may be amenable to large-scale open-pit mining – an appealing prospect considering the top 50m to 90m of sand cover is essentially “free-dig” overburden and that aqua regia testwork on samples from four previous holes has already been undertaken.
The latest drillhole is the second of two deep holes plunged into the project with the assistance of $220,000 in funding from the State Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme. It is the fifth diamond drillhole in the company’s phase-two program at Mulga Tank.
The hole was drilled to a total depth of 1548.3m at a dip of some 75 degrees, about half-way between two previous holes that also showed extensive disseminated sulphide mineralisation. The company says disseminated magmatic sulphides were noted down most of the hole from about 116m.
Multiple intercepts of high-tenor remobilised massive nickel sulphide blebs and veining were also observed down the length of the hole and appear to increase in frequency towards the basal contact of the complex.
As expected from previous drillholes, the dunite is divided horizontally by about 38m of what is interpreted to be a later stage dolerite sill from 749m to 787.3m. The company says it has been encountered in previous holes at almost the same depth.
Western Mines technical director Dr Ben Grguric said results clearly represent hallmarks of a “very significant mineralised system” that augur well for the prospectivity of the project.
And its intercept sizes and grades compare favourably with Chalice Mining’s much-heralded recent exploration results. Chalice reported what it described as “high-grade” diamond drilling results that include 93.8m at 0.2 per cent nickel, 0.1 per cent copper, 0.02 per cent cobalt.
Further, Chalice’s Gonneville step-out drilling focused on expanding the high-grade, in-pit, indicated and inferred underground category resource that currently includes 74 million tonnes at 0.22 per cent nickel.
Looking at Western Mines’ overall section that now stretches out to more than 4.5km across its wedge-shaped, lopolith-type intrusive and its broad zones of disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation, it is not hard to envisage the potential for the Mulga Tank ultramafics to host something significant.
The company obviously feels it has a tiger by the tail. Now it is imagining the size of the beast based on its limited drilling to date and is unlikely to let it go as it continues to pepper away with drilling.
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