South Harz Potash Ltd (ASX:SHP) has called time on a twin-hole confirmatory drilling program on the Ohmgebirge mining licence area of its 100%-owned South Harz Potash Project in central Germany.
The second drill hole in the confirmation program (OHM-01) was safely and successfully completed on Monday, May 16.
“Major milestone” passed
“This marks a major milestone for South Harz, with completion of the second confirmatory drill hole, OHM-01, and its initial positive outcomes," South Harz managing director Dr Chris Gilchrist said.
He said these "further substantiate our confidence in the accuracy of the 41 historical drill holes in the Ohmgebirge licence area and indeed the 300 historical drill holes which we acquired as part of our broader suite of South Harz Project mining licences.
“We now eagerly look forward to the assay results from OHM-01, finalisation of a mineral resource estimate update and completion and release of the milestone Ohmgebirge scoping study.”
Validation of historic results
Confirmatory hole OHM-01 was designed to twin and validate the results of a historic drill hole that intercepted the known Staßfurt Potash Horizon (z2KSt) from 784 metres to 802.4 metres depth (18.4 metres apparent thickness) and returned a potash intercept from 785.2 metres to 788.2 metres with a historic reported grade of 12.4% potassium oxide.
OHM-01 was drilled approximately 100 metres to the north of the historic hole to a target depth of 807.9 metres. It intercepted the potash horizon from 775.1 metres to 795.2 metres depth, with the sylvite-rich potash horizon visually identified from 775.1 metres to 778.8 metres.
Recovered core now at the lab
The recovered core has now been logged, photographed, cut and sampled. A total of 84 samples have been delivered to the nearby accredited laboratory of K-Utec Salt Technologies for a comprehensive assay suite comprising wet ICP and XRD analyses.
Comprehensive results from the two confirmatory drill holes (OHM-02 assay results were reported in late April) are targeted to allow South Harz to upgrade a substantial proportion of the current Ohmgebirge JORC (2012) inferred mineral resource estimate to the indicated category.
Resource estimate and scoping study
This updated mineral resource estimate for Ohmgebirge is expected to be completed during late June of 2022.
Subject to concurrent and satisfactory advancement of all modifying factors, the upgraded estimate is expected to allow the announcement of a comprehensive scoping study (a preliminary technical and economic assessment) for Ohmgebirge. This is scheduled for completion in July.