A stunning palladium and platinum discovery by legendary prospector Mark Creasy’s Galileo Mining was the talk of the town last week.
Just 200m away explorers Conico (ASX:CNJ) and Greenstone Resources (ASX:GSR) are looking for a repeat of the rich Callisto find, which uncovered the potential for the Norseman nickel and cobalt province to host mineralisation similar to the famous Platreef deposits of South Africa’s Bushveld that dominate the world’s platinum group metals supply.
The northern tenement boundary at Conico and Greenstone’s Mt Thirsty JV is just 200m from the discovery hole at Callisto, where Galileo struck 33m of core at 2g/t 3E (palladium, platinum and gold).
An initial review by Conico and Greenstone suggests they are well placed to follow up the impressive find. The continuation of the prospective mineralised horizon which hosts Callisto onto the Mt Thirsty tenure is supported by lithology and geophysics.
And it remains untested for a further 1.5km onto the MTJV tenure.
The JV partners have moved fast, with a program of work application already submitted with WA’s mines department for a 2000m drill program to begin in the next 6-8 weeks.
It will take four weeks to complete, running alongside a broader geological review of the nickel sulphide and lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatite potential of Mt Thirsty.
The case for a follow-up on Conico’s turf
Exhibit A for why a follow-up on Conico and Greenstone’s Mt Thirsty ground is the untested nature of the northeastern boundary of the tenement package, near the Callisto discovery.
Mt Thirsty has been extensively drilled and boasts an inferred and indicated resource of 26.9Mt at 0.126% cobalt and 0.54% nickel, but the prospective eastern margin remains largely untested.
Exhibit B is the depth. While Galileo’s discovery hole hit paydirt from 144m, only 3.5% of all holes drilled at the shallow Mt Thirsty resource have gone deeper than 100m.
Exciting stuff to follow up, especially given Galileo’s comparison of its Norseman PGE discovery to the Platfreef deposits.
They have a combined indicated resource of over 700 million tonnes at a 1g/t palladium, platinum, rhodium and gold cut-off with typical copper and nickel co-products as well.
At the same time as Conico and Greenstone move to follow up the Callisto discovery, a review of options into the next phase of development at Mt Thirsty is ongoing.
The previously released PFS came at a time of subdued cobalt and nickel prices in February 2020, with a pre-tax NPV of $44.4m.
But the growing need for battery metals nickel and cobalt in the rising EV and energy storage sectors could transform Mt Thirsty’s economic potential.
At recent spot prices of ~US$37,000/t nickel and ~US$81,000/t cobalt, the project would carry a pre-tax NPV of $712m.
This article was developed in collaboration with Conico, 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.