St George Mining (ASX:SGQ) has begun inaugural field exploration ahead of drilling next month in an area southwest of Western Australia’s Agnew-Wiluna belt, which hosts numerous world-class nickel and gold deposits.
The underexplored project area, known as Hawaii, is currently being acquired by St George from BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP) and is only 70 kilometres southwest of the centre of BHP Billiton Nickel West’s centre of nickel activities in Leinster.
Initial exploration has so far included a moving loop electromagnetic survey over a key area of an untested ultramafic. This will investigate any conductive bedrock sources that may represent massive sulphide mineralisation.
The survey will cover a total of 11 line kilometres with 121 stations.
A high temperature sensor will be deployed in the survey to provide very high-resolution data and minimise noise levels from conductive cover.
The ultramafic sequence being investigated was first identified by reconnaissance aircore drilling completed by Nickel West in 2012. The shallow aircore drilling (average drillhole depth of 50 metres) discovered over 5 kilometres of moderate to high magnesium oxide ultramafics adjacent to the Ida Fault.
Three aircore holes drilled by Nickel West into the magnetic anomalies within the survey area intersected the ultramafics over a 1.5-kilometre strike.
This area was previously interpreted as granite, and the discovery of prospective ultramafics was a significant exploration milestone.
The reverse circulation drilling program planned to follow this work next month will be the first-ever drilling to test the bedrock geology at Hawaii.
St George Mining Executive Chairman, John Prineas said:
“Exploration opportunities like Hawaii are rare. The previous limited work has identified significant potential, and we can now move towards taking this to a discovery with our own systematic exploration.
“It’s an exciting time for St George with major exploration programmes underway at both Hawaii and our flagship East Laverton Project.”
East Laverton progress
High-impact drilling at East Laverton (also in WA) has tested priority nickel sulphide targets, providing multiple opportunities for a new discovery.
Work at the project’s Windsor prospect has intersected extensive intervals of disseminated nickel sulphides, with nickel values up to 0.7% within a 116 metre thick eastern section of the mineralised ultramafic.
A discovery of nickel sulphides at Windsor was made by Nickel West in 2012, and outlines the prospectivity of the area.
This included 30 metres at 0.3% nickel from 108 metres, including 8 metres at 0.4% nickel and 2 metres at 0.6% nickel, and established the presence of a fertile komatiite ultramafic.
St George has also readied a drill campaign at the project’s Desert Dragon North area with identification of a highly prospective off-hole electromagnetic conductor.
Nickel sulphide mineralisation was first encountered at Desert Dragon North in 2012 by St George in 2012, when the company intersected nickel sulphide stringers including 2 metres at 1.1% nickel from 55 metres; and 2 metres at 0.4% nickel from 59 metres.
Analysis
Hawaii represents an uncommon exploration opportunity considering its unexplored nature in an active mining region where major players such as BHP operate world-class projects.
The geology at Hawaii could be contiguous with the stratigraphy that hosts Cosmos, which holds a resource of more than 500,000 tonnes of contained nickel and includes one of the highest grade nickel sulphide mines ever discovered.
The hit rate for nickel sulphide mineralisation in the drilling at Windsor has been exceptional. With more than 3,000 metres of drilling still yet to be completed at the site, it represents a significant opportunity for an important discovery.
Shares in St George have gained 81% in value since late August to their current rate of A$0.105 each. This momentum demonstrates industry and investor confidence in the company’s flagship East Laverton property and the importance of the project’s exploration successes over recent weeks.
The 2,000-square-kilometre East Laverton tenement package is only 230 kilometres northeast of Kalgoorlie in the underexplored and highly prospective eastern margin of the Yilgarn Craton.
As such, it represents an accessible frontier exploration location with tremendous potential to host new and significant nickel sulphide, gold and VMS-style base metal deposits.
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