Maximus Resources Ltd (ASX:MXR) is about to kick off a 6,500-metre multi-target gold and nickel aircore drill program at the Spargoville Project, 25 kilometres from BHP’s Nickel Concentrator in the world-class Kambalda district of Western Australia.
The campaign will concentrate on several high-priority nickel and gold targets generated from legacy geochemistry datasets and high-resolution geophysical surveys, and take in the recently acquired Kemble gold prospect.
Cost-effective, staged approach
The program was designed to take a cost-effective, systematic, staged approach following a comprehensive review of the project by the company’s recently appointed exploration manager.
“With the recent appointment of the company’s exploration manager, Gregor Bennett, there has been a detailed review of our exploration portfolio with a renewed focus, prioritising several gold and nickel targets associated with favourable geochemistry and geological setting,” managing director Tim Wither said.
“The company is excited to be kicking off 2023 with a multi-target gold and nickel drill program and looking forward to updating the market with follow-up gold exploration and resource growth programmes in the coming months.”
Nickel exploration
Maximus’ tenements sit on a 16-kilometre extension of a regional ultramafic belt hosting several nickel deposits, including Widgie Nickel Limited’s Mt Edwards Project.
The company considers its land package to be highly prospective for Kambalda-style komatiite-hosted nickel sulphide mineralisation, presenting an opportunity to discover nickel sulphides in a highly fertile area in parallel with advanced gold exploration.
The principal source of economic nickel deposits within the Kambalda region is associated with the basal contact position of Komatiite channels.
The trick is to determine the basal contact position in order to narrow the search for Kambalda-style nickel sulphide deposits.
Maximus has prioritised the targeting of several untested legacy copper and nickel soil anomalies in favourable stratigraphy.
The early-stage aircore drill program aims to define the exact location of basal contact and provide vital geochemistry data, to narrow in on prospective targets for follow-up drilling.
The company will be targeting nickel at the Central Nickel Target, where it has 80% nickel rights, the Hilditch area (90% MXR) and the 1A North/Central area (80% nickel rights).
Gold at Kemble
Maximus’ 100%-owned Kemble gold prospect has a substantial gold-in-soil anomaly within an underexplored mineralised corridor, roughly 3 kilometres north of the company’s Wattle Dam Gold Project.
Limited exploration has been carried out at the tenement, consisting of some surface sampling and several shallow drill holes.
Recent prospecting activities have yielded a considerable amount of gold near-surface, with the majority of recovered gold nuggets showing primary textures, indicating potential in-situ mineralisation at depth.
The company thinks that the historical drilling may only have tested beneath the transported gold anomalism and that the primary gold source could be on the paleo-slope along strike.
A series of aircore holes is planned to further explore this gold anomaly.