Maximus Resources Ltd (ASX:MXR) has begun the hunt for gold and nickel in earnest at the Spargoville Project in Western Australia, engaging in a multi-target aircore drilling program on the tenure.
The program incorporates several high-priority nickel and gold targets, including a maiden exploration of the recently acquired Kemble gold prospect to the west of the main project strike.
This early-stage program is predominately designed to define the basal contact position and provide important geochemistry data to narrow down prospective targets before more intensive drilling can occur.
Drilling target breakdown
Maximus has selected five priority targets for investigation in this drilling program: Hilditch, Kemble, Emu Patch, Ventral and 1A North.
Multi-target gold and nickel drill program locations over magnetic survey - Spargoville Project
The company is targeting gold at Kemble and Emu Patch.
Kemble holds a notable gold-in-soil anomaly within what Maximus considers an underexplored mineralised corridor, some 3 kilometres north of the company's Wattle Dam Gold Project.
Recent prospecting activity revealed a ‘considerable’ amount of gold near-surface, which will be explored by the air core program.
Emu Patch is a greenfield prospect that has also demonstrated near-surface gold coincidental to a magnetic high.
Of the nickel targets, Hilditch has previously been drilled for nickel, returning results including 2 metres at 2.4% nickel from 73 metres of depth and 4 metres at 1.8% nickel from 25 metres.
Maximus is planning to complete a series of aircore holes targeting geochemical pathfinder elements which could suggest nickel sulphide mineralisation at depth.
The Central target holds a 5-kilometre prospective strike between the historical 1A nickel mine and Andrews Shaft. The company will be testing three distinct ultramafic horizons in this area.
Finally, at A1 North, Maximus intends to find the basal contact position along strike from the 1A nickel mine, which historically produced 112,000 tonnes of nickel at 3.8% nickel.