News of Poseidon Nickel (ASX: POS) intersecting an ‘exceptional’ interval of massive sulphides at its Silver Swan underground mine was received positively on Monday, with shares closing up over 17%.
Visual inspection of hole PTMD018, which was targeting the Tundra-Mute zone of the Silver Swan Channel, identified a surprisingly thick 13.6m section of massive Ni-Cu sulphides with true width estimated at 9.8m.
The company notes that assays remain pending, and visual inspection should not be relied upon as a substitute.
“This is the best intersection so far in this drill program and is significant given that the average thickness of the Tundra Mute Inferred Resource was previously about 2 metres”
Commenting on the result, Poseidon Managing Director and CEO Peter Harold said: “we are very pleased to have recorded a very wide intersection of 13.6 metres of massive sulphides within the Tundra Mute Resource in the Silver Swan channel. This is the best intersection so far in this drill program and is significant given that the average thickness of the Tundra Mute Inferred Resource was previously about 2 metres.”
18 holes have so far been completed as part of the Tundra-Mute drilling campaign, which has been tasked with increasing confidence in the existing Silver Swan resource via converting inferred resources to the indicated category, along with testing for high-grade mineralisation external to the current resource.
Pending success of the campaign, the Silver Swan resource is expected to increase, which the company notes will underscore the business case for its ‘Fill the Mill’ strategy.
Photo of drill core from hole PTMD018 displaying visual massive sulphides from 265.5mThe news comes 2 months after Poseidon declared a 675kt @ 0.92% Ni + 683 ppm Co maiden resource on the Silver Swan Tailings dam.
The miner has flagged its intention to blend tailings product with open-pit ore to increase product marketability via an increase in Fe: MgO ratio, which it believes will lend support to a bankable feasibility study on restarting the Black Swan Project’s concentrator.
Poseidon states that it plans to follow up the current drilling campaign with two additional deeper holes below the resource, which will be used as EM platform holes.
Images: Poseidon Nickel Ltd
