Auroch Minerals Ltd (ASX:AOU) plans to undertake a 3,000-metre drill program at its Nepean Nickel Project near Coolgardie in Western Australia starting in late July.
This high priority reverse circulation (RC) program will comprise up to five drill holes targeting economic nickel sulphide mineralisation below the Nepean nickel mine workings.
The historic high-grade Nepean nickel sulphide mine, which was the second producing nickel mine in Australia, produced 1,108,457 tonnes of ore between 1970 and 1987 for in excess of 32,000 tonnes of nickel at an average recovered grade of 2.99%.
Very low prices of nickel forced the production to halt in 1987, leaving in-situ large remnant nickel sulphide resources.
High-priority target area
Auroch managing director Aidan Platel said: “We are extremely excited to begin work on our maiden drill program of the Nepean Deeps target.
“The life of the historic high-grade Nepean nickel mine was cut short in 1987 when nickel dropped to below US$4,000/tonne, so we knew when we acquired this project that it still had a lot more to give.
Program to start next month
The depth extent of the nickel sulphide mineralisation below the mine workings remains underexplored with effectively no previous drilling at depth.
As a result, the Nepean Deeps’ drill program is scheduled to start in late July.
Platel said: “As such, the Nepean Deeps target area is a very high-priority target area, and we look forward to commencing our maiden drill program there next month.”
"Important factor in drilling strategy"
A large flat-lying pegmatite vein cross-cuts the nickel sulphide mineralisation at the base of the Nepean mine workings, drawing an analogy to Western Areas Ltd’s (ASX:WSA) Flying Fox nickel mine, where despite several large cross-cutting granite sills the nickel sulphide mineralisation continues at depth below the sills.
Platel said: “The presence of the flat-lying pegmatite vein at the base of the old mine workings is an important factor in our drilling strategy as we know geologically that the pegmatite veins are later features that developed a long time after the massive nickel sulphides were emplaced in the basal channel.
“Hence, logically, the channel and the nickel mineralisation should continue beneath the pegmatite, exactly as was the case at Flying Fox.”