Western Mines Group has continued a nickel-gathering spree in WA’s Eastern Goldfields region with a new set of assays boasting multiple intercepts of more than 1 per cent nickel and 200m at 0.3 per cent nickel.
The results from three new reverse-circulation (RC) holes come just days after the company unveiled a whopping 367m stretch of nickel mineralisation averaging 0.26 per cent from its Mulga Tank project, about 200km north-east of Kalgoorlie. Two of the holes reveal the best results to date from the current drilling program.
Management says the first hole features multiple intercepts assaying more than 1 per cent nickel, including 8m at 1.2 per cent from 58m, 1m at 1.11 per cent from 172m, 3m at 1.32 per cent from 184m, 3m at 1.35 per cent from 228m and 2m at 1.71 per cent nickel from 229m.
The second hole yielded a 200m intercept running 0.3 per cent nickel from 103m depth, which includes 35m at 0.45 per cent from 162m holding 13m at 0.53 per cent from 183m.
The third hole revealed 138m running 0.28 per cent nickel, including 6m going 0.5 per cent and 5m at 0.49 per cent from 210m. There was also a separate intercept of 45m running 0.22 per cent nickel from 251m.
Cumulative drill intercepts from the three latest holes see the first hole with 129m at 0.34 per cent nickel, 156 parts per million cobalt, 163ppm copper and 25 parts per billion combined platinum and palladium (PGE). The second hole contains 200m at 0.3 per cent nickel, 139ppm cobalt, 92ppm copper and 25ppb PGE, while a third hole has a cumulative total of 183m at 0.26 per cent nickel, 132ppm cobalt, 165ppm copper and 16ppb PGE.
Our ‘hit rate’ continues with all three of the latest holes showing broad zones of nickel sulphide mineralisation. This latest batch returned the best results to date with MTRC015 containing multiple intersections over 1% nickel. Holes MTRC015 to MTRC017 cluster together in the centre of the complex and could represent a higher-grade core to the disseminated mineralisation. Follow-up RC is planned, and this area happens to be exactly the location we selected for our third hole EIS3 in our second EIS grant. Western Mines Group managing director Dr Caedmon Marriott
Marriott said the results continue to highlight the geochemical signature of mineralisation as the RC program looked to test a volume of about 650 million cubic metres in search of what he believed could be “globally significant” tonnes of nickel in sulphide.
The company has now received results for half of the 22 holes in the program, which has been designed to test the grades and lateral and vertical extents of a thick layer of shallow disseminated nickel mineralisation lying almost directly under the ubiquitous 60m to 90m of sand cover. Typically, the zone extends from just below the deep overlying sands, to about 280m and occasionally more than 300m.
The zone became apparent in the upper sections of a suite of six deep diamond drillholes put into the central zone of the project to test for deeper massive nickel sulphides and to map out the footwall of the intrusive.
All three of the latest holes show similar ranges of nickel values as those disclosed previously and continue to confirm broad zones of shallow disseminated nickel sulphides, which management believes could represent a Mt. Keith style of mineralisation.
With massive sulphides also indicated in some of the deep diamond holes close to the bottom contact of the dunite intrusive with the enclosing country rocks, Western Mines has also entertained the possibility that it may be sitting on a hybrid style of deposit. It means the company could be looking at a large volume of shallow disseminated nickel sulphides near the surface, which might even be potentially open-pittable, and a deeper massive sulphide deposit.
If results from the next 11 drillholes continue to show the same tenor of results, perhaps further confirming a potential hybrid model, then assays from the next deep Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) diamond drillhole and further RC drilling to extend the near surface disseminated zone might prove very revealing.
Western Mines certainly seems to be on a roll.
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