Carnavale Resources Ltd (ASX:CAV) has identified five target nickel-copper anomalies from an ultra-fine faction (UFF) soil sampling program at Grey Dam Nickel Sulphide Project, 70 kilometres northeast of Kalgoorlie in the Eastern Goldfields of WA.
A program of 964 UFF soil samples was completed over the northern mafic/ultramafic sequence as a follow up to an initial pilot program of UFF soil sampling.
Importantly, Carnavale delineated the five nickel/copper anomalies over a 10 kilometre long mafic/ultra-mafic package.
“Economically progress exploration”
Carnavale CEO Humphery Hale said: “We are pleased with the results that the UFF soil programs are delivering in the mafic/ultramafic terrain at Grey Dam.
“This technique has allowed us to economically progress the exploration of our tenements at a rapid rate.
“We have been able to verify the mafic/ultramafic geology under cover against the interpreted aeromagnetic imagery using UFF geochemistry.
“We are excited to have defined five nickel copper anomalies at Grey Dam with the aim of discovering nickel sulphide mineralisation analogous to the nearby Silver Swan mine under cover at depth.”
Grey Dam tenement package
Location plan of Grey Dam Nickel Sulphide Project and other CAV projects.
The Grey Dam tenement package lies within the Norseman-Wiluna greenstone belt, an Archaean sequence of ultramafic, mafic and felsic intrusive and extrusive volcanic rocks with associated sediments.
The tenement package contains two mafic/ultramafic sequences with the first southern sequence hosting the previously defined nickel-cobalt laterite resource and minor nickel sulphide mineralisation.
The second mafic/ultramafic sequence has received very little past exploration and is considered prospective for Kambalda style nickel sulphide mineralisation, usually located close to the maficultramafic-sediment contact.
UFF soil sampling program
Aeromagnetic image with initial pilot UFF soil survey
Carnavale is using aeromagnetic imagery mapping and UFF soil sampling to define this stratigraphic position and any nickel geochemical targets along the 10-kilometre prospective mafic/ultramafic sequence that is analogous to the Black Swan/Silver Swan high-grade nickel mine 50 kilometres west of Grey Dam.
The company has begun a pilot program of UFF soil sampling that it has been trailing with the CSIRO to open new areas to exploration that were previously unable to be explored due to extensive transported cover.
The aim of the UFF soil sampling program was to define geochemical anomalism that can help Carnavale economically vector into target zones that could host Kambalda style nickel sulphides under cover.
Carnavale will follow up these prospective geochemical anomalies with a survey of passive seismic traverses, to determine the depth of transported cover, and subject to results of the passive seismic survey, an EM geophysical survey to explore for concealed conductive nickel sulphide mineralisation.
CSIRO continues to optimise the information produced by the UFF soil programs, data analysis and reporting of the interpretation by CSIRO is ongoing and is expected to refine and improve the identification of anomalies and further information on the underlying geology.