Legend Mining Limited (ASX:LEG) continues to identify strong comparisons between its Rockford project and one of the world’s most significant nickel discoveries of recent years – the Nova-Bollinger deposit of Independence Group NL (ASX:IGO).
The two projects not only share an address in Western Australia’s world-class Fraser Range, they also share almost identical geology.
Mark Creasy a common denominator
Another common denominator is Australian mining industry ‘legend’ Mark Creasy who is the driving force behind much of the activity on the Fraser Range.
Creasy, who was behind Sirius Resources when it struck the Nova-Bollinger jackpot, has 16% of IGO and 28% of Legend while most of Legend’s 2,800 square kilometre Fraser Zone tenement position is a joint venture in which he has 30%.
He also has 31% of newcomer Galileo Mining Ltd (ASX:GAL), which has ground in the zone, and privately owns Great Southern Nickel.
New nickel-copper-cobalt discovery
The latter has stirred further interest in the Fraser Range with a new nickel-copper-cobalt discovery and lodgement of an application for a mining licence over the 61 square kilometre property.
Although details are sparse, submitting a licence application also entails attaching a mineralisation report.
Media reports says Creasy is optimistic that it will turn out to be a substantial ore body and he has stated that it has the same style of mineralisation as Nova-Bollinger.
Industry speculation is that the discovery could be at least one-third the size of the 2012 Nova-Bollinger discovery.
The ‘biggest block on the best street’
This augurs well for Legend, which according to managing director Mark Wilson, has the ‘biggest block on the best street’.
Rockford occupies 18% of the total Fraser Zone area and is 120 kilometres north of Nova and 100 kilometres south of the Tropicana joint venture gold operation.
As Legend has advanced exploration at Rockford, primarily adopting the same techniques as those used to discover the Nova-Bollinger ore body, the similarities have strengthened.
So, too, has investor interest with shares increasing from less than 1 cent in mid-November 2017 to a 12-month high of 6.6 cents last week.
READ: Legend Mining better defines scale of nickel-copper-cobalt at Fraser Range project
Mark Wilson addresses a Proactive CEO Session last week.
Recent efforts have focused on Area D, one of 21 conductors identified by innovative MLTEM survey work and confirmed by 13,315 metres of aircore drilling carried out since November 2017.
Significantly, Area D lies on the northeast margin of the central gravity hotspot while the Nova deposit is on the northeast margin of the southern gravity hotspot.
Wilson last week outlined to investors during the Proactive CEO Sessions that the results of this drilling are almost identical, if not better than those returned at Nova.
Blanket of enrichment
They indicate that Area D has a thick blanket of nickel-copper-cobalt enrichment with all holes ending in mineralisation hosted in gabbronorite.
This is an almost identical pattern to that revealed at The Eye anomaly in 2011, which resulted in the Nova 2012 discovery.
At The Eye drilling intersected a thick blanket of nickel-copper-cobalt enrichment which was open in all directions with underlying rocks being meta-gabbro/gabbronorite with disseminated pyrrhotite-pentlandite-chalcopyrite.
READ: Legend Mining extends successful exploration methods to southern portion of Fraser Range project
As was the case at Nova, Legend is following-up the Area D aircore program with reverse circulation and diamond drilling while the aircore work is underway at other parts of the Rockford project.
Legend has a market cap of around $100 million and had $7.5 million in cash and liquids as at June 30, 2018.