$440K govt grant to extend Western Mines Goldfields drilling program
Western Mines Group has been granted two applications under the WA Government's Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) for a total of $440,000 to co-fund more drilling at the company's Mulga Tank nickel-copper project in the Eastern Goldfields.
Both awards comprise the maximum 50 per cent co-funding available under the government incentive program and were awarded within a competitive application process.
WMG will put the funding towards the direct drilling costs of three diamond holes to further test the main body of the company's Mulga Tank complex and an interpreted komatiite channel system that is 8.2 kilometres northwest of the complex.
The work will include a 1500-metre deep diamond hole into the Mulga Tank ultramafic complex to follow up results from a previous diamond drilling program and an EIS-funded hole that was drilled last year.
The new hole, designated EIS8, will target the eastern portion of a Mobile magneto-telluric anomaly at the base of the intrusion. It will pass close to higher grade geochemical results from a previous diamond hole put into the zone.
WMG believes the targeted zone could represent a sulphide-enriched keel and/or a feeder vent for the overall intrusion.
The company has also designed two more diamond drill holes to probe to about 700m depth in one of the numerous elongate inferred komatiitic channels in its contiguous exploration licence, about 8.2km northwest of the proposed single deep hole.
Komatiite rocks are a type of ultramafic mantle-derived volcanic rock defined as having crystallised from a lava of at least 18 per cent magnesium oxide and containing low silicon, potassium and aluminium and high to extremely high magnesium.
The rare rocks almost all formed during the Archaean Eon, between 4.03–2.5 billion years ago, although a few younger examples are known.
Geographically, komatiites are mainly distributed to Archaean shield areas – including Mulga Tank for example - and occur with other ultramafic and high-magnesian mafic volcanic rocks in Archaean greenstone belts.
WMG first tested the Mulga Tank channel system during a belt-wide reverse circulation drilling program last year.
The two new holes will follow up the results of two holes drilled under a previous EIS grant into one of the elongate zones. They will test a body interpreted from aeromagnetic imagery to be about 1.3km long and which drilling confirms as high-magnesium oxide olivine cumulate/dunite and komatiite lithologies, with visible nickel sulphide mineralisation.
The planned holes will examine the stratigraphy of the komatiite system and target basal contact that last year's reverse circulation holes did not reach.
The company has undertaken various diamond and reverse circulation drilling programs at its Mulga Tank project over the past two years, which have demonstrated significant nickel sulphide mineralisation and an extensive nickel sulphide mineral system within the Mulga Tank ultramafic complex.
The company's exploration has included three deep co-funded diamond holes drilled with the aid of its EIS grants in rounds 26 and 28 of the State Government's co-funded exploration drilling program.
Previous EIS awards have been instrumental in the discovery of an extensive nickel sulphide mineral system within the Mulga Tank ultramafic complex.
The proposed deep EIS hole, EIS8, will look to test the basal contact of the complex and will target the eastern portion of a conductive MobileMT anomaly that was 'grazed' by a non-EIS hole.
That hole returned 96m at 0.40 per cent nickel and 0.016 per cent cobalt from 1208m, including 38m at 0.56 per cent nickel and 0.016 per cent cobalt from 1262m, and 8m at 1.11 per cent nickel and 0.018 per cent cobalt from 1270m at a depth corresponding to the MT anomaly.
These results are hosted within heavily disseminated sulphide mineralisation that could represent Perseverance-style 'cloud' sulphides occurring near a basal massive sulphide accumulation.
WMG has carefully planned a mix of the two drilling methods at Mulga Tank, using reverse circulation rigs to scout and infill previous drilling and then to prove-up the extent of shallow disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation.
The outcome of this work is reflected in the company's giant mineral resource modelling released two weeks ago, containing an eye-watering estimated 5.3 million tonnes of contained nickel, 257,000t cobalt, 161,000t copper and 1.1M ounces combined platinum and palladium.
The resource included a stunning combined indicated and inferred total of 1.97 billion tonnes at 0.27 per cent nickel, 131 parts per million (ppm) cobalt, 82ppm copper and 17 parts per billion combined platinum and palladium.
WMG's diamond drilling program comprises specific areas of investigation by testing deeper targets for basal massive sulphides potentially hosting nickel, copper and platinum group elements.
So far, the company has only drilled the relatively shallow disseminated zone within the more densely drilled parts of its central grid over the complex. Ample space is indicated across the magnetic signature of the central complex area for lateral extensions of this zone.
Additionally, the company has only scratched the edge of the possible significance of the multiple north and northwest trending multiple komatiitic feeder/channel system that radiates outwards from the main complex for as much as 15km.
And the company has yet to flesh out the extent of the deeper massive sulphide system that may be lurking at depth in or near the keel of the intrusive complex. The next deep hole will help resolve this.
Under the terms of the two EIS grants, WMG can kick off drilling of the latest holes from June 1 and the work will be included in its exploration plans for the year.
The current nickel price has increased by US$305 (A$478) per tonne since the beginning of the year and is currently US$15,606 (A$24,458) per tonne, offering a great portent for the project's potential.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact:
matt.birney@wanews.com.au
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