Nickel hits outside the Hiotinvaara prospect at Nordic Nickel’s Pulju project will add to an upcoming resource upgrade. Pic via Getty Images
Mining
Special Report: Final assays from drilling of Nordic Nickel’s Hotinvaara prospect have confirmed significant nickel sulphide mineralisation outside the Pulju project’s already defined area, ahead of a resource update in Q1 next year.
Nordic Nickel’s (ASX:NNL) flagship Pulju project is located within northern Finland’s Central Lapland Greenstone Belt, where it’s looking to expand its 133.6Mt Hotinvaara deposit which accounts for just 2% of the overall project area – providing significant exploration upside potential.
The explorer recently raised over $2.05m through a share placement at 14c per share, a 12.5% discount to the 15-day VWAP, with funds utilised to advance Pulju towards a resource update and Phase 2 drilling in early 2024.
A 15.4km, 28-hole maiden diamond drill program has been completed at Hotinvaara, where assays have confirmed the presence of higher-grade disseminated sulphide mineralisation – which NNL says is “an encouraging indicator for future exploration and the potential for high-grade nickel sulphide discoveries at Pulju”.
Significantly, this includes hole HOT016, which was drilled outside the current resource area and returned 26.4m @ 0.59% nickel, including 1.2m @ 1.02% nickel.
This result has confirmed the potential for the Hotinsaajo magnetic anomaly to host high-grade nickel sulphides and broad zones of near-surface disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation, where HOT016 intersected the prospective ultramafic rock units at surface until 512.9m end-of-hole.
At hole HOT028, assays showed 125m @ 0.19% nickel from 152.3m and 54.25m @ 0.22% nickel from 319.55m, including 5.8m @ 0.57% nickel from 322.55m, while hole HOT027 returned 99.1m @ 0.22% nickel from 4.7m.
The drilling has expanded the area of disseminated mineralisation and the potential to sizeably expand the current 133.6Mt @ 0.21% nickel and 0.01% cobalt resource estimate at Hotinvaara.
NNL MD Todd Ross says it’s great to finish the year with one of the widest zones of higher grade nickel sulphide mineralisation seen at the project thus far.
“This is a very encouraging indication of the fertility and endowment of the system, providing clear evidence that Hotinvaara has the potential to host large accumulations of high-grade nickel sulphides,” Ross says.
“While work is continuing on an update to the current mineral resource estimate, the team is now also actively engaged in a detailed review of the data generated from the 2023 drill program.
“The focus now is on building our understanding of the controls and orientation of the mineralisation by developing interpretive cross-sections across the deposit and matching this information with what we know about the broader structural geological context and position of the drilled intercepts within the mineralised system.
“With the help of some of the most experienced nickel exploration geologists in the business, we are working towards a refined geological model which will help us to more accurately design and target the next round of holes to hopefully lead us towards a breakthrough discovery.
“The final batch of assays has delivered some real encouragement that we are now moving much closer to achieving that objective. We are very excited about what 2024 will deliver for the company.”
This article was developed in collaboration with Nordic Nickel, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
