Venture Minerals Ltd (ASX: VMS) is entering an exciting phase as it looks to move from explorer to producer at the Riley iron ore mine in northwest Tasmania.

Meanwhile, Chalice Mining (ASX:CHN) has recently committed to spend up to $3.7m in Venture’s South West project in WA to test a “Julimar lookalike” nickel-copper-PGE target.

The 256sqkm South West project contains two main nickel-copper-PGE prospects: Thor and Odin.

Chalice has kicked off a ground Electromagnetic (EM) program over selected areas of the 20km long ‘Julimar lookalike’ magnetic anomaly — Thor — as part of the first stage of the joint venture earn-in agreement.

EM surveys map subsurface changes in electrical conductivity and are a useful tool for finding nickel sulphides.

In 2018, an airborne EM survey identified 13 highly conductive anomalies within the southern 6.5km of the magnetic anomaly, of which only two have been tested by single holes in the maiden drill program.

This maiden drill program at Thor intersected 2.4m of massive sulphide averaging 0.5% copper, 0.05% nickel, 0.04% cobalt and anomalous gold and palladium.

A maiden drill hole at Odin intersected nickel and copper sulphides within a highly prospective mafic-ultramafic unit that extends over 10 strike kilometres.

Any resultant anomalies from the Chalice EM program will be ‘infilled’ to define targets for subsequent surface geochemical sampling or drilling.

Caption: Chalice’s planned MLEM Program at Venture’s South West Project over aeromagnetics.

 

The program is expected to be completed within 4-6 weeks and is part of the first stage of the JV earn-in which Chalice may earn up to 70% by spending $3.7 million on exploration over 4 years.

“The company looks forward to seeing the outcomes from Chalice’s first on-ground exploration program,” Venture managing director Andrew Radonjic says.

“The Chalice exploration team has used its proprietary knowledge to select areas from Venture’s previous early-stage exploration work for follow-up ground EM, aiming to repeat their success at Julimar by targeting a very similar geological setting.”

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Venture 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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