Azure Minerals Ltd (ASX:AZS) has boosted the Andover Nickel Project resource by 28% with a maiden mineral resource estimate (MRE) at Ridgeline Deposit delivering 1.3 million tonnes at 1.11% nickel, 0.46 copper and 0.05% cobalt for 14,700 tonnes of contained nickel, 6,100 tonnes of contained copper and 640 tonnes of contained cobalt.
The global resource for the Andover JV Project in the West Pilbara region of Western Australia, which is 60% held by Azure and 40% by the Creasy Group, now stands at 6 million tonnes at 1.11% nickel, 0.47% copper and 0.05% cobalt for 97,300 tonnes of contained metal.
The MRE follows Azure's recent intersection of a very broad zone of high-grade nickel sulphide during resource definition drilling at Ridgeline, making it the highest-grade nickel hit at the desposit.
Ridgeline Deposit is the second mineral resource to be defined on the Andover Nickel Project, with the MRE for the Andover Deposit released in March last year.
Potential to expand resource base
Azure managing director Tony Rovira said: “I am pleased to present the Ridgeline mineral resource estimate which is a great result and demonstrates that there continues to be excellent potential to significantly expand the resource base of the Andover Nickel Project through ongoing exploration success.
“With the final and deepest drill hole at Ridgeline returning the best-mineralised intersection to date (14.5 metres at 2.26% nickel), I am confident that we can grow this resource even further.
“It is a credit to our exploration team that, after just over two years, we are in the position to be able to release a second robust mineral resource estimate for Andover.
“Ridgeline is blind to surface, which increased the challenge of identifying and defining the mineralisation.
“Given the technical understanding and knowledge that our team has built up through systematic exploration of the project area, I am confident that the team can deliver more discoveries.
“Azure is in an excellent position to continue to explore and realise the nickel potential of the Andover Project and I look forward to providing further updates as we progress.”
MRE summary
The mineral resource has been classified as indicated and inferred based on the guidelines specified in the JORC Code (2012).
The MRE was completed by CSA Global Pty Ltd based on 58 diamond holes drilled between 2021 and 2022, for a total of 33,065.3 metres.
Mineral resources were estimated by Ordinary Kriging (OK) within five estimation domains that represented disseminated, blebby, veinlet, matrix and massive sulphide mineralisation.
Meanwhile, the mineralised domains were modelled in Leapfrog Geo using a nominal grade cut-off of 0.5% nickel and 3% sulphur.
Ridgeline resource classification image plan view and right (red blocks indicated and orange blocks inferred) looking north
About Andover Project
The Andover Nickel Project is 35 kilometres southeast of Karratha and immediately south of the town of Roebourne.
Excellent infrastructure such as airports, port access, railway, grid power, sealed highway and support services are readily available in the local district.
Andover project location.