Mincor Resources NL (ASX: MCR) has announced a highly positive update on its ongoing diamond drilling at the Cassini nickel sulphide deposit at Kambalda in WA.
The company reported an outstanding new high-grade nickel sulphide intercept of 17.6m @ 5.0% Ni in hole MDD339 within the CS4 channel, including a higher-grade core of 13.0m @ 6.1% Ni.
MCR said that the estimated true width intersection of 12.0m demonstrates the presence of continued thick nickel sulphide mineralisation in this channel.
It may be noted that MDD339 is a significant step-out hole, being 115m down-plunge of the last reported CS4 channel and beyond the current Mineral Resource boundary.
The company announced that further follow-up diamond drill holes are planned for January and early February 2020.
Cassini Nickel Project
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.
Mincor Resources’ nickel restart strategy is centred on four key production hubs at Cassini, Durkin North, Ken/McMahon, and Miitel/Burnett.
Drilling at Cassini
The company had commenced drilling at Cassini project in 2019. The first hole of the program, MDD338, was designed to test the CS4 channel up-dip in a shallower position to allow for any potential changes to the basalt model and provide an electromagnetic survey platform.
The drill hole MDD338 had intersected nickel sulphides on the CS4 surface returning an intercept of 1.3m @ 7.8% Ni.
Exceptional intercept at Cassini
The company said that the ongoing drilling at Cassini has returned another exceptional high-grade nickel intercept which yielded 17.6m at 5.0% Ni (including 13.0m @ 6.1% Ni) in hole MDD339, interpreted to be within the CS4 channel.
MCR said that the new intersection is 115m down-plunge from the last reported CS4 intersection and represents the first result from a discrete program aimed at demonstrating the continuity of nickel sulphide mineralisation at Cassini.
The company said that this intersection is also down-plunge of the boundary of the reported Mineral Resource. It may be noted that the drill hole MDD338 had ultimately provided the target for the hole MDD339.
The company noted that like MDD338, hole MDD339 also intersected the upper leading edge of the sub-vertical CS5 surface, returning an initial intercept of 4.2m @ 1.2% Ni before encountering the wide high-grade zone of nickel sulphide mineralisation reported above.
Drilling to continue
MCR said that the initial interpretation from this intersection indicates that the CS4 and CS5 channels may be steeper dipping beyond the current Mineral Resource.
The company reported that the new intercept demonstrates the continuity, thickness and tenor of the high-grade nickel sulphide mineralisation within both the CS4 and CS5 surfaces, providing the proof of concept to continue the extensional drilling program at Cassini throughout January and early February 2020.
Management comments
Mincor’s Managing Director, David Southam, said: “What a great way to start the New Year with significant new drilling success at Cassini. The CS4 surface has recently taken somewhat of a back-seat from the remarkable success we achieved with our drilling program in the December 2019 quarter surrounding the CS5 surface intersections.
Today’s result shows that the CS4 surface could also extend significantly, with this intersection being 115m down-plunge from the last reported intersection. It is also our second highest value hole per metre (measured as intercept width multiplied by nickel grade) at Cassini.
We have committed part of the proceeds from our recent $35 million capital raising to continue to invest in resource extension, resource development and exploration while we complete the Definitive Feasibility Study for our integrated Nickel Restart Strategy.
The outstanding new drilling results reported today represent a clear vindication of this approach, demonstrating that our extensional drilling strategy at Cassini has the potential to deliver substantial success beyond our existing Mineral Resource which, at just over 50,000 high-grade nickel tonnes, is already one of the most significant new nickel sulphide discoveries in the Kambalda district in recent decades.
The next sequence of step-out holes will be targeted in the CS5 and CS2 channels of Cassini through January and into early February 2020 while we finalise our nickel restart studies.”