Poseidon Nickel Ltd (ASX:POS, OTC:PSDNF) has boosted the nickel resource inventory at its Black Swan Project in Western Australia with a maiden mineral resource estimate for the Golden Swan deposit of 160,000 tonnes at 3.9% nickel for 6,250 tonnes contained nickel.
Importantly, the majority of this, 111,600 tonnes at 4.7% for 5,200 tonnes contained nickel, is within the indicated category.
Golden Swan adds considerable tonnage to the high-grade inventory at Black Swan with indicated resources of high-grade at Black Swan now 219,600 tonnes at 7% nickel for 15,330 tonnes of contained nickel.
"Significant development"
Poseidon managing director and CEO Peter Harold said: “The Golden Swan Resource is a significant development in the progress towards restarting operations at Black Swan.
“Mine studies have commenced to potentially convert the Golden Swan resource to a mine reserve.
“The Golden Swan resource is located only 120 metres from the drill drive developed earlier this year and could be brought into production in a short time frame.
“Along with Silver Swan reserve, it is believed that two independent high-grade feed sources should assist in de-risking the restart at Black Swan under the Fill the Mill Strategy.
“Other programs underway as part of the bankable feasibility study include the resource definition drilling program down plunge of Silver Swan, mining studies on open pit and underground resources, metallurgical test-work on blending the various feed sources and capital and operating cost estimates by GR Engineering.
“We remain committed to our project schedule of commissioning Black Swan during December 2022.”
Golden Swan deposit
The Golden Swan nickel sulphide deposit is within the Black Swan Komatiite complex, 450 metres south of the high-grade Silver Swan massive sulphide deposit.
Reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction (RPEEE) have been demonstrated by the previous underground mining at the Cygnet and Silver Swan prospects, which are of comparable volumes and grade and at similar depths and are spatially adjacent to Golden Swan.