Western Mines Group has signed a binding agreement with Dynamic Metals to secure a key tenement that significantly expands the former’s Mulga Tank nickel-copper-platinum group elements project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields region.
The acquisition takes the total area of Mulga Tank to 425 square kilometres, covering about 37km strike and the entire Minigwal greenstone belt that management says is under-explored due to the presence of shallow sand cover. The tenement has already been granted with Western Mines set to immediately kick off exploration programs at the site.
Management says the new ground contains interpreted ultramafic bodies and potential komatiite channels from the main Mulga Tank dunite intrusion. The interpreted ultramafic bodies are yet to be drill-tested, but are believed to be extensions of the komatiite sequences it drilled in the Panhandle area of the Mulga Tank complex.
Recent holes sunk by Western Mines in the area show the komatiite sequences contain nickel sulphide mineralisation and could potentially host Kambalda-style massive nickel sulphide deposits.
The company will pay Dynamic $20,000 in cash, 100,000 fully-paid shares, 200,000 options over ordinary shares, exercisable three years from the date of issue, and a 1 per cent net smelter royalty.
This strategic acquisition secures the final missing piece of the Minigwal Greenstone Belt and consolidates WMG’s ownership of the Mulga Tank Ultramafic Complex. The new ground is contiguous to, and surrounded by, WMG’s tenements E39/2132 and E39/2299 and contains a number of interesting looking interpreted ultramafic bodies extending from the Panhandle area of the Mulga Tank Complex. Tenement E39/2134 is already granted so we intend to get on the ground there as soon as possible. Western Mines Group managing director Caedmon Marriott
Just last month, the company kicked off an initial 18-hole reverse-circulation (RC) campaign of 5400m at Mulga Tank to test the extent of shallow disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation across the ultramafic complex.
The latest exploration program follows a diamond probe in April that pulled some significant wide hits. Co-funded by the WA Government through its exploration incentive scheme, Western Mines plunged a diamond hole over 1400m into the deepest part of the complex in a geological fact-seeking mission. Management believes the hole could become the “pivotal” discovery hole of the project.
Headline hits include a whopping 306m averaging 0.26 per cent nickel from 402m, followed by 221.5m at 0.25 per cent nickel from 794.5m. More than 1200m of komatiitic ultramafic was intersected, with the cumulative 693.5m hit running at 0.28 per cent nickel, 128 parts per million cobalt, 61ppm copper and 27 parts per billion platinum and palladium.
The company says the multiple broad intersections of disseminated nickel mineralisation with elevated nickel and sulphur, in combination with highly-anomalous copper, platinum and palladium, allude to a fertile magmatic nickel sulphide mineral system.
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