Poseidon Nickel Limited (ASX: POS) has announced a highly encouraging update on its current drilling program at the Silver Swan and Black Swan deposits located ~50km north of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
The company said that the initial assay from the first three holes of the current program at Silver Swan has confirmed some of the highest grade sulphide nickel intersections achieved so far. This includes 5.9m @ 9.92% Ni (True width 2.5m); 7.48m @ 10.89% Ni (True width 2.9m); and 13m @ 5.64% Ni.
Poseidon reported that the ongoing 3,000m Silver Swan drilling program will be completed over the next 5 weeks with assays to follow thereafter.
POS also announced positive results from two-hole drilling program at Black Swan, with intercepts of 223.1m @ 1.02%Ni (including 74m @ 1.5%Ni) and 289m @ 0.62% Ni (True width 75m).
The company reported that the drilling programs and geological modelling are expected to be completed over the next three months, after which an extension of the current resources are anticipated.
Poseidon’s three assets
Poseidon Nickel Limited owns three previously operating Nickel Sulphide mines: Windarra, Black Swan/Silver Swan and Lake Johnston.
These 100% owned assets collectively had an operating capacity of 3.6mtpa (Lake Johnston 1.5mtpa; Black Swan 2.1mta) and a combined Nickel resource of 391,900 tonnes of Nickel.
The Black Swan project comprises the Silver Swan underground mine, the Black Swan open pit and the Black Swan 2.2Mtpa Concentrator with 191,400t of nickel metal in resource. The company is currently aiming to restart the Black Swan operations.
Aim of drilling program
The company said that the drilling program at the Silver Swan and Black Swan deposits was designed to confirm the potential for additional ore associated with the Black Swan disseminated nickel ore channel, together with extension of the higher-grade resources at Silver Swan.
Impressive results at Silver Swan
The 3,000 metre program at Silver Swan was intended to extend the size of the deposit, as well as convert inferred ore resources to indicated resources.
Poseidon reported that the latest diamond drilling at its Silver Swan underground mine extends high-grade sulphide nickel ore bodies.
The intercepts includes 5.9m @ 9.92% Ni (True width 2.5m); 7.48m @ 10.89% Ni (True width 2.9m); and 13m @ 5.64% Ni. Massive sulphides were intersected in the fourth hole, with assays pending.
It may be noted that the geophysical Down-Hole Electromagnetic (DHEM) survey completed at Silver Swan 10 years ago had interpreted its potential.
Drill hole results at Black Swan
The company said that two Diamond drill holes were drilled from the Silver Swan underground magazine chamber (920 metres below the surface) into the Black Swan disseminated deposit, which extends at depth from below the Black Swan open pit.
The holes intersected 289m @ 0.62% Ni (true width of 75m) and 223m @ 1.02%Ni.
What’s next?
Poseidon noted that the positive drilling results, together with historical drilling data, will enable geological modeling to be progressed in respect to the overall continuity of the Black Swan Disseminated deposit and the extent of the Silver Swan deposit.
The company said that it is developing an underground and surface RC drilling program to intersect the Black Swan mineralisation between the floor of the Open Pit and the high-grade Gosling workings to progress this potential.
The drilling programs and modelling are expected to be completed over the next three months. The company expressed confidence that an extension of the current resources is likely to result.
Management comments
Posiedon’s managing director Rob Dennis said: “We are extremely excited with the Silver Swan results. By any measure the results have exceeded our expectations with the results at Silver Swan demonstrating some superior nickel grade and solid true width intersections.
The two pronged approach we have adopted has been designed to test the potential and extension of ore sources at both Black Swan and Silver Swan.
Combined, these drilling programs have yielded some extremely positive outcomes by virtue of grade width and scale and have prompted us to reassess and accelerate our future drilling programs.
We will complete the drilling at the high-grade Silver Swan deposit in the next few weeks. Our focus, will then be to build on the potential of the Black Swan disseminated ore body above the Gosling deposit which will complement the Silver Swan higher grade success.
From the outset, our objective has been to develop and improve resource potential in proximity to our processing facilities at Black Swan.
We consider that the existing processing capabilities at Black Swan and extremely positive drilling results puts us in a unique position in this nickel province.”