Australian exploration company Legend Mining (ASX:LEG) has delivered a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for the Mawson Nickel-Copper-Cobalt (Ni-Cu-Co) deposit, located within the Rockford Project in Western Australia.
The MRE for Mawson is 1.45 million tonnes @ 1.14% Ni, 0.74% Cu and 0.07% Co (1.2% NiEq) for 16,500 tonnes of contained nickel, 10,600 tonnes of contained copper, and 1,100 tonnes of contained cobalt.
This maiden MRE was completed by Ashmore Advisory and is based on 26 drillholes completed between 2019 and 2021. These holes consisted of 24 diamond core, and 2 reverse circulation (RC) drillholes completed for 8,938m. All drillholes were assayed where they intersected mineralisation.
The company says this mineralisation was modelled from a depth of 65m to 305m below surface. The drillhole spacing is predominantly 20m by 20m across the discovery zone, broadening to about 50m by 100m over the remaining areas.
Commenting on the maiden MRE, Legend Mining Managing Director Mark Wilson says: “The rationale to publish this resource at Mawson was to quantify the success of our exploration efforts to date and to establish a base upon which we can continue to build a resource inventory at our Rockford Project.
This is the third published nickel resource in the Fraser Range, demonstrating that this underexplored nickel belt has the potential to host further accumulations of nickel-copper sulphide. Our ongoing systematic exploration efforts will look to discover more of these accumulations across Rockford.
“The rationale to publish this resource at Mawson was to quantify the success of our exploration efforts to date and to establish a base upon which we can continue to build a resource inventory at our Rockford Project”
We are looking forward to the receipt of the Octagonal 3D seismic model and the reprocessed model for Mawson as a basis to plan diamond drilling for the upcoming field season as set out in our December 2022 quarterly report. Meanwhile, the regional aircore drilling and innovative high-power EM surveys are ongoing.”
Legend reports the MRE was classified as an indicated and inferred mineral resource based on data quality, sample spacing, and lode continuity. The indicated mineral resource was defined within areas of close spaced drilling of less than 25m by 25m, and where the continuity and predictability of the mineralised units was reasonable.
The inferred mineral resource was assigned to areas where drillhole spacing was greater than 25m by 25m and less than 50m by 50m, where small, isolated pods of mineralisation occur outside the main mineralised zones, and to geologically complex zones.
Legend says the Mawson deposit shows good continuity of the main mineralised zones which allowed the drillhole intersections to be modelled into coherent, and geologically robust domains. Consistency is evident in the thickness of the structure, and the distribution of grade appears to be reasonable down-plunge of the main zones.
The extrapolation of the lodes along strike and down-dip has been limited to a distance equal to the previous section drill spacing or to 50m. Further drilling along strike or down-dip within the Mawson area may define extensions to the known mineralisation or new zones of mineralisation. There is an opportunity to increase the level of confidence in the estimate by conducting infill drilling.
Legend reports it will reprocess the Mawson 3D seismic model with new downhole datasets, and incorporate completed drilling, geophysics, geochemistry, structural, and existing 3D modelling into a seismic model for diamond drilling target ranking and planning at Mawson.
The company will also be completing a 3D seismic model for the Octagonal deposit until March 2023, with the final model expected to be received in April or May.
Legend will also conduct aircore (AC) drilling over selected prospective areas and will be continuing a data analysis to identify new, and advance existing areas.
Legend Mining is an Australian exploration company focused on the Rockford project in the Fraser Range district of Western Australia. The project covers an area of 2,994km-square across 14 granted exploration licences. The Mawson deposit is located within exploration tenements E28/2118 and E28/2189 which is under a joint venture (JV) between Legend (70%), and the Creasy Group through private company Rockford Metals (30%).
Images: Legend Mining Ltd
