The nickel explorer has drilled through the thick pegmatite intrusion that was previously intersected at the base of the historic mine workings. 

Auroch Minerals has intersected through thick pegmatite intrusion below the historic Nepean Nickel Mine in Western Australia with its first drill hole (NPDD008).

The hole, drilled to 1,291m, intersected 46m of prospective komatiitic ultramafics over three intervals from 1088.5-1108.5m, 1144.5–1148.35m and 1210.5-1233m within a lower greenstone sequence starting at 993m.

Drilling was undertaken as both a first-pass stratigraphic hole and as a platform for DHEM and DHMMR geophysical surveys, currently underway.

The geophysical surveying and modelling will take between one to two weeks and used to plan further drilling into the Nepean Deeps Target.

‘Exceptional result’

AOU managing director Aidan Platel said it’s a pivotal moment for the Nepean Project and for Auroch.

“Due to the lack of any deep exploration historically, we had no idea what to expect from this first drill-hole once we got to depths below the historic mine workings.

“To have drilled through the pegmatite intrusion that was identified at the base of the old mine workings, which has never been done before, and to have intersected thick zones of ultramafics below the pegmatite, which are potentially the same rocks units that host the high-grade nickel sulphide mineralisation above the pegmatite, is an exceptional result,” he said.

“(It) proves our theory that the mine stratigraphy does indeed continue beneath the pegmatite intrusion.”

Platel said downhole geophysical surveys have begun and will test for conductive bodies such as massive nickel sulphides that may lie within 100–150m of the hole.

He said information from the geophysics, along with the geological and geochemical data from the drill-hole itself, will be used to design the next drill-hole into this target zone.

 

 

 

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.

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