Corazon Mining Ltd (ASX:CZN) has completed its due diligence and exercised an option to acquire the Miriam Nickel Sulphide Project in Western Australia’s Goldfields region, a project that is highly prospective and a strategic addition to the company’s established nickel-sulphide portfolio.
Comprising five Prospecting Licence applications, the Miriam Project is 10 kilometres south-southwest of Coolgardie on an ultramafic trend (low silica content intrusions indicating possible mineralisation) that hosts Auroch Minerals Ltd (ASX:AOU)’s Miriam and Nepean nickel deposits.
Corazon says it's excited by the project’s exploration potential, as previous drilling undertaken in the 1960s and 1970s intersected ‘high nickel tenor’ massive and disseminated sulphides. This area of historic drilling will be an initial exploration priority.
Next steps
Having exercised its option to acquire, Corazon will now move to secure the granting of tenement applications before the inception of on-ground exploration programs.
These permitting efforts will allow for the first stage of drilling that will target the Miriam Nickel Deposit and known nickel occurrences along the Miriam Trend.
Past exploration results, including drilling and geophysics, will be integrated into the company’s drill targeting exercise, and a maiden resource estimate will be produced as soon as practical.
The Miriam Project
The project covers an area of six kilometres by 1.5 kilometres, comprising five potential prospects. Anaconda Australia Limited discovered the Miriam Deposit, located within the project, in 1969, and conducted most of the known nickel exploration in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Anaconda’s efforts defined the core of the deposit over a 150-metre strike to a depth of the same extent. Follow-up drilling extended the depth of the deposit to up to 300 metres in some places.
This work is not compliant with today’s JORC standards and further drilling is required for the definition of a JORC resource estimate at Miriam.
Historic drilling at the Miriam deposit was mostly shallow percussion drilling, unsuited to reach the ultramafic footwall target and establish the true perimeter of the mineralisation.
This project represents an extensive but untested opportunity to target nickel-sulphide mineralisation at depth and along strike.
More contemporary work undertaken in the 90s and early 2000s further confirmed the presence of large, disseminated nickel sulphides located within or close to well-defined channel sequences.
Though not JORC compliant, this historic data will allow Corazon to undertake a focused and detailed exploration program, utilising modern electromagnetic geophysics.
Option agreement details
Corazon Mining is an Australian resource company with projects in Australia and Canada targeting nickel, cobalt, copper and gold mineralisation.
On July 26 2021, Corazon announced it had entered into an option agreement with Limelight Industries Pty Ltd. It was subsequently granted an option to acquire up to 100% of the Miriam Project on the following terms:
- Corazon was granted an exclusive option to conduct due diligence on the Miriam Project for a period of three months by paying an option fee of $75,000.
- Subsequent to Corazon’s election to exercise the option and by paying a non-refundable amount of $125,000 to the vendor (Stage 1 Consideration), Corazon can complete the acquisition by paying an amount of $400,000 to the vendor (Stage 2 Consideration) on the earlier to occur of the date that is six months after the date of exercise of the option and the date of grant of tenure. Corazon exercised theoOption to acquire and completed the Stage 1 Consideration on October 14, 2021.
- The vendor will retain a net smelter return royalty of 2% and the right to mine mullock dumps (for gold mineralisation) and to metal detect for a period of three years subsequent to the grant of tenure.