Kingwest Resources Ltd (ASX:KWR)’s first pass aircore drilling targeting 11 kilometres of the nickel-fertile Highway Ultramafic unit has been completed at Lake Goongarrie.
A total of 223 holes for 7,788 metres have been drilled with all assays still pending.
The Highway Ultramafic hosts several ‘Kambalda-type’ channel nickel sulphide deposits along strike to the south, including Auroch Minerals emerging Saints nickel sulphide deposits and the historic Scotia Nickel Mine, which produced 30,800 tonnes of nickel metal between 1969 and 1977.
Historic drill holes completed by Western Mining Corporation within Kingwest’s tenements returned intersections of up to 21 metres at 0.4 % nickel.
The inaugural 4,000 metres diamond core drill testing of Sir Laurence gold targets is planned to commence in several weeks.
“Discovery potential”
Kingwest CEO Ed Turner said: “We are very pleased to have completed our first exploration drilling program for nickel sulphide mineralisation within our Lake Goongarrie Project.
“Assay results are eagerly anticipated given that limited widespread historic drilling has already revealed anomalous nickel assays on several drill lines.
“Kingwest’s Goongarrie tenement package hosts multiple nickel exploration targets directly along strike of the ‘Saints’ Kambalda-type, komatiite-hosted, channel nickel sulphide deposits.
“The 11 kilometres continuation of the nickel-fertile Highway Ultramafic within our landholdings has great discovery potential for nickel.
“The target areas also host numerous prospective litho-structural settings for gold mineralisation and so some additional drilling was completed to test these targets during this program.
“In addition, I look forward to the inaugural diamond core drill testing of the Sir Laurence gold Discovery which will commence in several weeks’ time.”
Drilling objectives
The drilling had a number of objectives:
➢ To confirm the precise location of the Highway Ultramafic beneath the lake cover, as interpreted from Kingwest’s recent high-resolution aeromagnetic survey;
➢ To establish the exact position of the most nickel-prospective eastern basal contact;
➢ To investigate the geological facies of the komatiite flow units;
➢ To confirm the presence of anomalous nickel-cobalt values reported from widely spaced 1990s shallow vertical reconnaissance aircore drilling by Western Mining Corporation, Breakaway Resources and Scotia Nickel;
➢ To follow up some of these historic nickel intersections with more closely spaced drilling;
➢ To add infill drill lines across the ultramafic in between the historical drill lines so as to close up the line spacing along strike;
➢ To provide an initial test of some thicker sections of the ultramafic that could be channel-flow facies komatiites;
➢ To confirm the aeromagnetic interpretation of a number of outlying geological features; and
➢ Incidental to the above, to test several prospective cross-cutting geological structures for gold.
Next steps
The company plans to review all aircore drill assay data once received, to plan follow up exploration programs.
These may include additional drilling as well as MLEM (moving loop electromagnetic) surveys over selected sections of the Highway Ultramafic, which are interpreted as having the best chance of containing nickel sulphide deposits.
An inaugural 4,000 metres diamond core drilling program is also due to commence at the Sir Laurence gold Discovery in several weeks. This will include holes of between 200 metres and 450 metres in depth.