Pioneer Resources (ASX:PIO) has begun drilling to test strongly anomalous nickel geochemistry in near-fresh ultramafic rocks at its Fairwater nickel project in Western Australia.
The five-week diamond core program will follow up anomalies defined earlier this year with aircore drilling that produced 0.51% nickel at 33-34 metres and 0.61% nickel at 44-45 metres.
Previous exploration at the target also delivered 8 metres at 0.33% nickel from 30 metres depth with a maximum grade of 0.39%.
The new drilling is planned to confirm that the ultramafic rocks are able to host nickel sulphide mineralisation even if sulphides are not initially intersected.
Final laboratory assays are expected towards the end of November 2015 for the holes which will act as a platform for down-hole electromagnetic surveys.
Key location
Fairwater’s nickel targets are located in interpreted Proterozoic-aged rocks between 100 and 130 kilometres southwest of Independence Group’s (ASX:IGO) Nova and Bollinger nickel discoveries, in WA’s Albany-Fraser Orogen.
Fraser Range nickel sulphide deposits are classed as ‘mafic intrusive hosted’, a class of deposit that includes Voysey’s Bay in Canada and Radio Hill in WA amongst others. This style of deposit occurs within areas where tectonic events have resulted in zones of crustal thinning, often adjacent to major crustal sutures.
Within Fairwater, soil geochemistry generated a cluster of nickel anomalies within an apparent mafic or ultramafic rock unit.
Broader portfolio
Beyond Fairwater, Pioneer’s exploration strategy focuses on the Blair nickel mine near Kambalda and the Acra gold project near Kalgoorlie (both in WA).
Recent drilling success at Acra’s Kalpini South prospect has included the delivery of 0.2 metres at 116g/t gold from 131 metres and 1.2 metres at 20.8g/t gold from 145.71 metres, which included 0.2 metres at 84g/t gold.
Previous drilling at this prospect has demonstrated the potential for a narrow, high grade gold lode system with grades as high as 9.63g/t gold over 1 metre.
Analysis
The new drilling at Fairwater is significant because it offers an opportunity to clarify the mineralisation potential of highly prospective ground in an increasingly important nickel district.
The campaign will benefit from up to A$129,5000 of co-funding from the government’s exploration incentive scheme.
High grades of up to 116g/t gold at Acra are extremely encouraging as the company improves its understanding of Kalpini South and tests for high-grade primary and supergene gold mineralisation.
Pioneer benefits from the diversity of a WA portfolio beyond its core exploration targets, including the Juglah Dome/Dingo Dam VMS prospect and the new Fleming Grove nickel prospect, which are periodically benchmarked against the key assets.
The company had $1.83 million in cash and no debt as of the end of June.
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