Poseidon Nickel Ltd (ASX:POS, OTC:PSDNF) continues to progress de-risking operations for the restart of its Black Swan Nickel Project, 50 kilometres northeast of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
The company has two underground rigs testing the potential down-plunge extensions and infilling existing inferred resources at Silver Swan underground mine within the Black Swan Project.
Current work is part of the 'Fill the Mill' strategy for the restart which requires confidence in high-grade resources at Silver Swan and Golden Swan deposits.
“De-risking the restart”
Managing director and CEO, Peter Harold said: “The 'Fill the Mill' strategy for the Black Swan restart requires good confidence in our high-grade resources at both Silver Swan and Golden Swan so the mining studies can maximise the mining inventory and generate accurate mining schedules to assist in de-risking the restart.
“The current drilling below Silver Swan is being undertaken from new drill positions which allow for better drill angles to infill the resources and test for extensions.
“While we have returned some high-grade hits at Tundra-Mute we have not yet intersected any high-grade extensional mineralisation outside the current resource shapes.”
Drilling at Silver Swan
Poseidon has drilling underway at Silver Swan, utilising two underground diamond drills targeting three areas namely Peking Duck, Tundra-mute and Fledgling-Canard that collectively contain 16,000 tonnes of nickel averaging 9.5% in indicated and inferred mineral resources.
The program aims to
- Infill the inferred resource at Tundra-Mute and potentially upgrade them to an indicated resource status; and
- Test for mineralised extensions beyond the existing resources.
First assays received from Tundra Mute include:
- 1.55 metres at 12.98% nickel from 259.6 metres;
- 0.6 metres at 1.31% nickel from 273.4 metres; and
- 1.95 metres at 6.66% nickel from 251.2 metres.
Silver Swan planned drilling
“New DHEM platforms”
Harold adds: “New DHEM platforms have been established down plunge of the Silver Swan mineralisation and these are awaiting a geophysical crew to undertake the survey.
“The results of the survey could provide targets for extensional drilling.
"In the meantime, we have identified a good zone of mineralisation below the Black Swan open pit from previous RC drilling, undertaken in 2019, which could present an opportunity to increase the size of the pit and extend the proposed open-pit mine life.
“We can drill this zone from underground and will redeploy one of the underground rigs to undertake that drilling.”
Southern Terrace exploration
Poseidon's drilling and DHEM survey of the four holes drilled up-plunge from Golden Swan has been completed.
Drilling successfully tested the tenuous plates modelled from previous DHEM surveys but no visible mineralisation was observed and the subsequent survey found two holes blocked at a distance from the footwall contact that made them of limited use for DHEM.
The company still believes that the Southern Terrace has the potential to host more massive sulphide mineralisation.
Golden Swan resource
The Golden Swan maiden resource determination has been delayed due to a combination of factors outside the company’s control.
Resource consultants have advised the report will be delivered shortly which should facilitate public release in the last week of October.
View to west of drilling up plunge from Golden Swan.
“Southern Terrace remains prospective”
Harold adds: “While the recent Southern Terrace drilling program did not intersect mineralisation or identify any significant EM anomalies, we still believe the Southern Terrace remains prospective for more high-grade nickel sulphides.
“We are now reviewing our exploration techniques for the Southern Terrace to determine if another method may be suitable for targeting our future drilling activities.
“The Golden Swan maiden resource finalisation has taken longer than expected and is now due for release later this week.
Fill the Mill
Section highlights changes to serpentinite and mineralisation extents from the 2019 RC program.
Poseidon’s bankable feasibility study on the 1.1 million tonnes per annum is well underway.
The base feed for the study is a combination of Black Swan open pit ore and Silver Swan Tailings.
Subsequently, the base feed will be complemented with high-grade ore from both Golden Swan and Silver Swan, subject to a reserve being confirmed for Golden Swan.
In order to further re-risk the Fill the Mill strategy it is important to understand the distribution of the more metallurgically favourable mineralised serpentinite ore below the existing Black Swan open pit.