Caeneus speeds to nickel, cobalt, copper and palladium prize at Highway

Caeneus has intersected thick, shallow nickel-cobalt-copper-palladium mineralisation that highlights the significance of the Highway Deposit at its Pardoo nickel project in WA.

Notable results received to date from the Phase 1 reverse circulation program are:

CPRC003 – 64m at 0.5% nickel from 49m including 14m at 1% nickel from 76m, 102m at 0.04% cobalt from 27m, 109m at 0.15% copper from 24m, and 63m at 0.1g/t palladium from 24m;
CPRC010 – 45m at 0.49% nickel from 54m, 80m at 0.05% cobalt from 53m, and 97m at 0.22% copper from 35m.

The sheared, ultramafic rocks intersected by Caeneus Minerals (ASX:CAD) indicate that Highway is a large mineralised system that is open down-dip and along strike to the east and west.

Nickel mineralisation strike at the deposit is currently about 900m while cobalt mineralisation stretches out to 1.25km.

“These initial drilling results provide a breakthrough in the understanding of the historical Highway nickel, cobalt and copper project in the Pilbara,” chief executive officer Robert Mosig said.

“Our drilling complements and confirms the current significance of the Highway deposit whilst potentially adding value to the current mineralisation by the addition of palladium with the other metals.

“The company now has an exciting period ahead as it evaluates the open-pit mining potential of Highway as well as continuing more exploration activities at its exciting Roberts Hill and Mt Berghaus projects in the Mallina Basin.”

Highway drilling

The Phase 1 RC drill program, which was completed in April, was designed to define the economic footprint of the Highway deposit that was discovered by CRA Exploration in the early 1990s.

Caeneus has received 45% of the assay results from the 1m samples submitted to ALS laboratories in Perth with several of the 14 holes drilled already noting significant mineralisation including anomalous palladium which had not been consistently assayed by earlier explorers.

CPRC003 was mineralised from surface collaring into an obscured nickeliferous gossan before encountering semi-massive-disseminated pyrrhotite-chalcopyrite-pentlandite at depth.

CPRC010 intersected thick disseminated pyrrhotite-chalcopyrite mineralisation at depth and is also hosted by an ultramafic schist in contact with a BIF.

This footwall BIF outcrops at surface in the field to the southeast of the mineralisation and likely indicates a relaxed thrust fault which has sourced mineralised fluids from deeper within the mantle.

Additionally, a review of all historical drilling has led to the identification of two new regional targets situated along strike from the main ore body.

This includes the T1 target about 350m southwest of Highway which was identified by the thick higher grade cobalt mineralisation intersected in hole RC07HW025. It offers an opportunity to conduct extensional drilling that may add significantly more cobalt to the historical resource.

Recent assays also significantly de-risk the project by providing an evaluation of historical work that was completed on the deposit and increase the company’s geological understanding of the shallow and large mineralised system.

Further drilling will be carried out later this year with a focus on defining a higher-grade core and increasing the strike length of the ore body, which will provide the basis for a maiden JORC 2012 Mineral Resource estimate.

This article was developed in collaboration with Caeneus 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.