Defining a new nickel district
Murchison Minerals is now fully funded to complete an exciting summer exploration programme at its 100%-owned HPM Nickel Project, Quebec, where the company is focused on exploring a new nickel district.
Murchison raised C$5.35mln in early July in a placing that was supported by strategic investor, Michael Gentile, and Murchison’s largest shareholder and director, Donald K Johnson.
The company also recently completed the interpretation of a VTEM survey that covers the entire 576 km2 HPM project area. Preliminary results defined a significant number of new prospective geophysical anomalies (Figure 1), which are now being surveyed at a higher resolution and tested using a beep mat survey and a backpack drill.
The beep mat prospecting programme is being used to locate near-surface nickel-bearing sulphide mineralisation associated with the new anomalies. Any anomalies detected using the beep mat survey are to be sampled using a small backpack diamond drill.
Following the completion of the higher-resolution VTEM survey, the new and refined anomalies will be ground-truthed. Murchison will then be able to rank the new targets and prioritise them for follow-up drilling.
The significance of these survey results is underlined by the fact that the company has moved quickly to stake an additional 72 km2 of claims contiguous to the currently defined HPM property (Figure 1). If issued, the HPM’s new boundaries will be 648 km2.
Alongside this regional exploration programme, Murchison is also completing local scale exploration work with a programme of downhole EM surveys.
The downhole EM survey is being conducted in previously drilled holes at the Barre de Fer (BDF) target and nearby Syrah target, which is interpreted to have missed the geophysical target.
In addition to this extensive programme of target definition work, Murchison is also undertaking a summer exploration programme that is expected to consist of at least 7,500 meters of drilling.
Most of the drilling is to be focused on the delineation of additional mineralisation at the Barre de Fer target (BDF), with the objective of defining a maiden mineral resource estimate by Q4 2022 or Q1 2023.
This summer looks set to be a very important period for Murchison Minerals as it focuses on its key objective of defining a near-surface, high-grade nickel resource that is likely amenable to open pit extraction, as well as building up a portfolio of de-risked, high-priority targets for future drilling.
Figure 1 - VTEM Results and New Claim Boundaries
Source: Murchison Minerals
Figure 2 - Defined Mineralisation
Source: Murchison Minerals
Regional Scale Exploration
Preliminary HPM VTEM results
The April 2022 VTEM survey has defined a number of very interesting looking anomalies to both the south and north of the previous exploration work (Figure 1).
Many of the newly defined anomalies have similar geophysical responses to the Barre de Fer target (BDF), where historic drilling defined high-grade nickel-copper-cobalt mineralisation (Figure 2), with results including:
- 52.15 metres at a grade of 1.52% Ni, 0.79% Cu and 0.08% Co (HPM-08-03)
- 15.95 metres at a grade of 1.64% Ni, 0.63% Co and 0.08% Co (HPM-08-04)
- 5.47 metres at a grade of 2.34% Ni, 0.97% Cuand 1.23% Co (HPM-08-01)
- 8.21 metres at a grade of 1.48% Ni, 0.71% Cu and 0.08% Co (HPM-08-02)
- 9.85 metres at a grade of 1.10% Ni, 0.52% Cu and 0.06% Co (HPM-08-17)
Beep mat surveys
The beep mat exploration survey is being conducted by three teams at a number of the newly defined regional targets.
This work is focused on trying to define near-surface nickel-bearing sulphide mineralisation associated with the new anomalies.
Any anomalies that are detected using the beep mat survey are then sampled using a small backpack based diamond drill.
Previous beep mat work at the BDF target has already defined multiple areas of new surface mineralisation, assays are pending for those samples
Higher-resolution survey underway
Given the quality and scale of the newly defined anomalies, Murchison is undertaking a follow-up VTEM survey, at a higher-resolution, to improve the definition of the high-conductivity and magnetic anomalies.
Once the final VTEM data from the higher-resolution survey is received, the most prospective anomalies will be selected for 3D geophysical modelling and detailed surface based prospecting to identify the source of the anomalies at surface, ahead of drill testing.
Initial VTEM results lead to further staking
The initial VTEM results led Murchison to stake additional ground to the south of the existing project area (Figure 1).
This is the second time Murchison has increased the scale of the project, having previously increased its project area in December 2021 from 139km2 to 576 km2. If the new claim is issued, the HPM Project’s new boundaries will be 648 km2.
Local Scale Exploration
Downhole EM surveys
Murchison has commenced a programme of downhole borehole electromagnetic (EM) surveys using previously drilled holes at the BDF target.
The borehole EM surveys are expected to define target areas for expansion drilling during the upcoming summer programme.
In addition to the downhole work at the BDF target, a survey has been completed in the one hole drilled at the nearby Syrah Target, which is interpreted to have missed the geophysical target.
This work has detected an off-hole EM response, which potentially indicates nickel-bearing sulphide mineralisation.
Summer drill programme
The summer 2022 drill programme at the HPM Project is expected to consist of at least 7,500 meters. The majority of the drilling is expected to be drilled at the BDF Target, to define additional mineralisation to be included in a maiden resource estimate.
Murchison is targeting the publication of this maiden mineral resource estimate for by Q4 2022 to early Q1 2023.
The balance of the drilling will be completed at the Syrah Target, a 600-meter-long EM anomaly, that lies 350 meters northeast of the BDF target. Murchison's current interpretation is that the BDF and Syrah targets are connected at depth.
The drilling phase of the summer programme will commence once the downhole borehole EM surveys, re-logging, and structural analysis have been completed and interpreted.