Drilling continues, as does the ground IP survey at the regional Nepean North prospect, which holds the potential to generate new targets for the next drilling campaign.

Auroch Minerals’ second drillhole at the Nepean Project in Western Australia has intersected a 76m thick ultramafic unit with 12.5m of disseminated and matrix to semi-massive nickel sulphide mineralisation just below the targeted DHEM conductor 1A/1B.

The company says intersected sulphides are pyrrhotite dominant, with both pentlandite (nickel sulphide) and chalcopyrite (copper sulphide) observed in the semi-massive to matrix sulphides. The core is currently being cut and sampled for priority assay submission.

Drillhole NPDD013 is at a depth of around 675m and is planned to be drilled to a final depth of 800m to test for any further intersections of ultramafic units and potential nickel sulphide mineralisation beneath historical Nepean mine workings.

Upon completion the drill-hole will be cased for DHEM surveying.

Focused on generating new targets for next campaign

Auroch (ASX:AOU) managing director Aidan Platel said the ultramafic unit is a lot thicker than the correlating ultramafic intersected in the first hole NPDD008 and highlights the untested potential of Nepean beneath the historic workings and level of historic exploration.

“Our current interpretation is that this ultramafic is the historically named Sill 1 ultramafic, which until now was thought to be unmineralised, thus opening up a whole new potential for significant nickel sulphide mineralisation at Nepean.

“The mineralised drill core will be sampled and rushed to the lab for assaying, and we look forward to announcing those results to the market when they are received.”

Platel said in the meantime drilling continues, as does the ground IP survey at the regional Nepean North prospect, which the company believes will generate significant new targets for the next drilling campaign.

Regional exploration

Exploration activities at Nepean currently comprises the ground dipole-dipole induced polarisation (IP) survey that recently commenced over the Nepean North Prospect of the Nepean Nickel Project, where a recent geochemistry review highlighted the prospectivity of the ultramafic sequences for nickel sulphide mineralisation.

To date a total of five lines have been completed, with the survey commencing from the north.

Preliminary results have identified some strong chargeability features in fresh rock associated with both a gabbro/dolerite and the eastern basal contact of the Nepean ultramafic.

The survey is expected to be completed in about two weeks, and finalised results will be used to plan follow-up exploration and drilling.

 

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Auroch Minerals, 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.

Read MoreNickel

Featured Companies

You might be interested in