Blackstone hits massive sulphide nickel at King Snake

Special Report: Blackstone Minerals has hit massive sulphide vein mineralisation in multiple drill holes during the maiden exploration program at its King Snake prospect.

Blackstone (ASX:BSX) was testing electromagnetic targets generated late last year with diamond drilling, with six of the first seven holes intersecting massive sulphides (MSV) and associated disseminated sulphides (DSS).

Blackstone Black Snake — Drill core from hole KS20-02, where 9.4m of sulphide mineralisation was intersected, including 1.18m of MSV. Pic: Supplied

The intersections, when combined with historic drill results, define a strike length of over 800m at King Snake – including MSV, semi-massive sulphide vein and DSS with mineralisation open in multiple directions.

Samples from the drilling are now with the laboratory, with assays expected in the coming weeks.

Part of a potential province

King Snake, which sits within Blackstone’s (ASX:BSX) developing Ta Khoa project in Vietnam, is one of several high priority targets in the area.

The company said immediate success at King Snake reaffirmed both the prospectivity of the region and the company’s strategy in defining high grade nickel targets using electromagnetic geophysical techniques.

“Our investment into targeting higher grade MSV deposits within the Ta Khoa district continues to pay dividends,” Managing Director Scott Williamson said.

“We will pursue an aggressive drilling program at King Snake as we look to build a high grade MSV mining inventory to support the restart of the existing 450,000 tonne per annum Ban Phuc concentrator.”

King Snake is one of a number of prospects for Blackstone at Ta Khoa, with the company currently also drilling the Ban Phuc, Ban Chang, Ta Cuong and Ban Khoa targets while completing a maiden mineral resource estimate for the Ban Chang prospect.

Williamson said the latest results continued to affirm Blackstone’s view of the project’s potential.

“The drill bit continues to highlight the district-scale opportunity at Ta Khoa, which we are confident will provide many years of consistent, high quality nickel-copper-PGE concentrates to our planned downstream refinery business,” he said.

“Our in-house geophysics team has a proven track record with success at Ban Chang following up immediately at King Snake. We look forward to delivering maiden resources at each of these prospects and continuing to systematically assess up to 25 MSV targets in the Ta Khoa pipeline.”