Azure Minerals has unveiled a new discovery at its Andover nickel-copper project, striking 66m of sulphides in the first hole drilled at the VC-07 West electromagnetic target.

ANDD0041 intersected 36.6m of matrix and heavily disseminated nickel-copper sulphides from 428.15m, and 28.9m of matrix, stringer and disseminated nickel-copper sulphides from 644.1m.

Azure (ASX:AZS) said the mineralisation and associated downhole electromagnetic conductors were open in all directions, with an intensive three diamond drill rig campaign ongoing.

VC-07 West sits in the western part of the mineralised corridor, and around 400m from the first discovery at Andover at VC-07 East.

Drilling to follow up the intersection is underway, in search of mineralisation along strike to the west and for up-dip mineralised extensions.

Azure owns 60% of Andover, with the remaining 40% held by Mark Creasy’s Creasy Group under a joint venture arrangement.

How the west was won

To enhance drill targeting in the western part of the mineralised system, two deep divergent diamond holes were previously drilled as platforms for downhole electromagnetic surveys.

Strong EM conductors were detected from both, and triangulated modelling demonstrated the presence of at least two strong conductor plates located to the west and extending above and below both holes.

ANDD0041 was the first hole drilled to test the conductors. A second hole, ANDD0042, is currently in progress and targeted to intersect the downhole electromagnetic plates to the west of the discovery hole.

Another hole, ANDD0045, is being drilled above ANDD0041 to test for up-dip extensions.

Azure
Andover VC-07 showing drill hole locations and section lines. Pic: Supplied.

Eastern infill work going well

Meanwhile, infill drilling in the eastern part of VC-07 continues to hit significant nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation.

The campaign is being undertaken to confirm the internal continuity of the grade and the thickness of the mineralised zone as Azure and Creasy Group work towards a resource estimate.

Six holes have been completed so far as part of the ongoing in-fill campaign at VC-07 East, with each intersecting significant widths of nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation ranging from 16m to 47m downhole extents.

Infill assay results include 7.15m at 2.28% nickel and 0.57% copper from 135.4m in ANDD0031, including 4.25m at 3.59% nickel and 0.78% copper from 137.1m.

To date, Azure has completed 43 diamond drill holes for more than 18,000m at Andover, with 25 drilled at VC-07 and the balance at VC-23.

Two diamond rigs are currently testing the mineralisation at VC-07 West while a third continues the infill campaign at VC-07 East.

Azure said planning continued for additional drilling at other high priority targets across the project area, including at VC-23, VC-18 and VC-41, using data from airborne and electromagnetic surveys and a recently completed high resolution aerial magnetic survey.

The company said it would no longer report visual intersections from Andover unless of new significance due to the large amount of drilling information currently being generated.

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Azure 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.