Legend Mining Ltd (ASX:LEG) has turned its systematic exploration efforts at Mawson deposit in the Rockford Project, Fraser Range, Western Australia, into a maiden mineral resource estimate (MRE) containing 28,200 tonnes of key battery metals.
Within the 1.45 million tonnes at 1.2% nickel equivalent resource reported above a 0.5% cut-off is 16,500 tonnes of nickel, 10,600 tonnes of copper and 1,100 tonnes of cobalt.
Importantly for future development plans, the mineralisation is shallow, between 65 metres and 305 metres below surface, and 70% of the resource is in the higher confidence indicated category.
Base to build inventory
Legend managing director Mark Wilson said: “The rationale to publish this resource at Mawson was to quantify the success of our exploration efforts to date and to establish a base upon which we can continue to build a resource inventory at our Rockford Project.
“This is the third published nickel resource in the Fraser Range, demonstrating that this under-explored nickel belt has the potential to host further accumulations of nickel-copper sulphide.
“Our ongoing systematic exploration efforts will look to discover more of these accumulations across Rockford.”
Resource components
Mawson’s indicated resource totals 860,000 tonnes at 1.41% nickel equivalent for 11,500 tonnes of nickel, 7,600 tonnes of copper and 700 tonnes of cobalt.
The inferred component is 590,000 tonnes at 0.9% nickel equivalent for 5,000 tonnes of nickel, 3,100 tonnes of copper and 400 tonnes of cobalt.
Mawson Intrusion and mineral resource classification area.
The maiden MRE was completed by Ashmore Advisory Pty Ltd. It is based on 26 drill holes completed between 2019 and 2021, which consisted of 24 diamond core (DD) and two reverse circulation (RC) for 8,938 metres.
Drill hole spacing is predominantly 20 by 20 metres across the discovery zone, broadening to about 50 by 100 metres over the remaining areas.
The Mawson deposit shows good continuity of the main mineralised zones which allowed the drill hole intersections to be modelled into coherent, geologically robust domains.
Consistency is evident in the thickness of the structure, and the distribution of grade appears to be reasonable down plunge of the main zones.
Exploration upside
Further drilling along strike or down-dip within the Mawson area may define extensions to known mineralisation or new zones of mineralisation. There is an opportunity to increase the level of confidence in the estimate by conducting infill drilling.
There is plenty of exploration upside with Mawson mineralisation open and the main source still to be discovered, Octagonal seismic model pending and a pipeline of targets within the large 3,000 square kilometres of tenure.
Mawson mineral resource classification – oblique view facing northwest.
Future work programs
Legend Mining has the following work planned at Rockford:
- Reprocessing of the Mawson 3D seismic model with new downhole datasets.
- Incorporate completed drilling, geophysics, geochemistry, structural, and existing 3D modelling into a seismic model for diamond drilling target ranking and planning at Mawson.
- Diamond drill target planning at Mawson.
- Octagonal 3D seismic data processing January 2023-March 2023.
- Final 3D seismic model for Octagonal to be received April-May 2023.
- Diamond drill target planning at Octagonal.
- Aircore drilling over selected prospective areas.
- Data analysis ongoing identifying new and advancing existing areas.
“We are looking forward to receipt of the Octagonal 3D seismic model and the reprocessed model for Mawson as a basis to plan diamond drilling for the upcoming field season as set out in our December 2022 quarterly report,” Wilson said.
“Meanwhile, the regional aircore drilling and innovative high-power EM surveys are ongoing.”
About Rockford
The Rockford Project is within the highly prospective Fraser Range district of Western Australia, with tenure covering a total area of 2,994 square kilometres and comprising 14 granted exploration licences.
Located 300 kilometres east of Kalgoorlie, the project is serviced by excellent infrastructure including the TransAustralia Railway and gas pipeline to the Tropicana Gold Mine.
The Mawson nickel-copper-cobalt deposit is within E28/2188 and E28/2189, which is under a joint venture between Legend (70%) and the Creasy Group, through Rockford Metals Pty Ltd (30%).