Mincor Resources NL (ASX: MCR) has announced a highly positive update on the drilling at its Cassini Cassini Nickel Project in the Kambalda region of Western Australia.
The company reported further high-grade sulphide intercept of 8.2m @ 7.6% Ni in MDD341, within the CS4 channel.
The new intersection is from infill drilling designed to upgrade the Inferred category of the Mineral Resource.
The company also reported new intersection (MDD342) of 7.7m @ 1.4% Ni (incl 0.5m @ 7.5% Ni) at Cassini North, where drilling has identified a new possible channel location.
MCR said that two diamond drill rigs are now working at Cassini and Cassini North.
Mincor’s Managing Director David Southam said that the Cassini Project continues to deliver outstanding results, both from infill drilling of the main Mineral Resource, and from exploration targeting potential upside at Cassini North.
Cassini Nickel project
Mincor Resources’ nickel restart strategy is centred on four key production hubs at Cassini, Durkin North, Ken/McMahon, and Miitel/Burnett.
The Cassini Nickel Project area lies on the southern end of the Widgiemooltha Dome in the southern part of the Archaean Norseman–Wiluna Greenstone Belt and has a reported Mineral Resource of 1.254Mt at 4.0% Ni for 50,400 nickel tonnes.
Two open ended resource trends have been delineated at Cassini to date, CS2, and CS4.
Drilling at Cassini
The company reported that Cassini Main, two further drill holes were completed on the 6491350mN section. Meanwhile, a second diamond drill rig was sourced during February 2020 to accelerate testing of the Cassini North area, which includes the CS1 channel area.
MCR said that the infill drilling of the Inferred section of the Mineral Resource is making excellent progress and initial drilling at the Cassini North prospect has delivered exciting results. This is being done a as part of strategy to upgrade Inferred Mineral Resources
High-grade results from Cassini Main
The company said that at Cassini Main area, after outstanding intersection of 17.6m @ 5.0% Ni reported on 6 January 2020, two further drill holes were completed on the 6491350mN section.
Hole MDD338W1B intercepts
The company reported that one of the holes, MDD338W1B, intersected the CS5 contact returning a strong intercept of 3.4m @ 3.2% Ni as well as a hanging wall interceptof 2.2m @ 11.1% Ni.
MCR said that at this stage, it is not known if this hanging wall intercept is an extension of an existing mineralised surface or the start of an entirely new surface. The company said that further holes are planned on this section.
Rig repositioned
in order to increase confidence in the Inferred section of the Mineral Resource (and potentially convert it to the Indicated category), MCR said that the rig was repositioned to drill an infill section.
Hole MDD341 intercepts
The company announced that the first hole, MDD341, returned an outstanding intercept of 8.2m @ 7.6% Ni (estimated true width 4.7m).
MDD341 is located within the Inferred Mineral Resource envelope in the delineated CS5/CS4 channels. This new intersection was recorded in the CS4 channel after intersecting the interpreted very top edge of CS5.
MDD341’s intersection lies 68m down-plunge from MDD317W2 and 58m up-plunge from MDD339. The company said that the CS4 intersection is stronger than currently modelled and is more in line with the previously reported intercept in MDD338.
The company said that hole MDD341 demonstrates the continuity, thickness and high-grade nature of the nickel sulphides contained within the CS5 and CS4 surfaces and confirms the Company’s decision to potentially include these Inferred Resources as part of the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) to be announced by the end of this quarter.
Encouraging results from Cassini North
MCR reported that a second diamond drill rig was sourced during February to accelerate testing of the Cassini North area, which includes the CS1 channel area. CS1 area is located 400m from the existing Mineral Resource.
Initial drill testing was partly reported in the December 2019 Quarterly Report (MDD335 and MDD337) but, with recent follow-up drilling in MDD342, it has now been properly put into context.
The company said that the initial target was two discrete magnetic highs that appeared to be on the basal contact and were down-plunge from anomalous nickel geochemistry in historical aircore holes.
MCR said that the first hole tested the western-most magnetic feature but intersected no significant nickel mineralisation and thin komatiite flow units and sediments. The DHEM response from this hole identified a target further to the east.
The company reported that the second hole in the program intersected thin flow units with minor nickel mineralisation of 0.2m @ 2.5% Ni in a hanging wall position.
MCR said that holes MDD340 and MDD342 (the most recent hole) were drilled progressively to the east and tested the second magnetic feature and DHEM targets.
The company reported that all holes have delivered improved vectors and indicate potential for greater nickel prospectivity further to the east and up or down-plunge.
Hole MDD342
MCR said that hole MDD342 intersected 7.7m @ 1.4% Ni, which included matrix sulphides that returned 0.5m @ 7.5% Ni.
What’s next?
The company reported that diamond drill rig has now moved to the down wedge below MDD341, targeting the CS5 channel.
The company reported that two holes are planned to be drilled in the CS1 area and the plan beyond these holes remains flexible depending on results.
Management comments
Mincor’s Managing Director, David Southam, said: “The intersection of 8.2m at 7.6% nickel supports our belief that, as we drill deeper, Cassini Main is thickening and will deliver exceptionally high-grade results – although we should remember that this is still relatively shallow in the context of Kambalda nickel deposits.
The focus of drilling is to convert some, if not all, of the Inferred material into the higher confidence Indicated category. We are also seeking potential Mineral Resource extensions to demonstrate that Cassini will have a significant life beyond what we ruled off for DFS purposes in November 2019.
Outside of Cassini Main, we are particularly excited and now encouraged by the early drilling results at Cassini North, which is located roughly 400m from Cassini Main.
To have early success of nearly 7.7m at 1.4% Ni, and which includes a high-grade subinterval of 7.5% Ni, shows that we could be onto a similar channel to Cassini Main. Drilling is continuing with two rigs.”