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Conico exploring extensions to Galileo’s PGE discovery
Mining
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The Mt Thirsty JV is due to start drilling later this week less than 200m from Galileo Mining’s huge, company making palladium-platinum-gold-copper-nickel (PGE) discovery in WA.
The ‘Mt Thirsty’ project JV partners (50% Conico (ASX:CNJ); 50% Greenstone Resources (ASX:GSR) were struck by nearology fervour after Galileo Mining (ASX:GAL) hit PGE-Ni-Ci paydirt right next door.
GAL is up 450% since first announcing the discovery in early May.
By ‘right next door’ we mean less than 200m away:
Importantly for CNJ, “… prospective horizons from GAL appear to trend on to ground held by the Mt Thirsty Joint Venture,” director Guy le Page said in May.
“It appears around 1.5km of this layered intrusion (Mission Sill) appear to strike on to the JV ground and remain largely untested.”
This is supported by several historical drill holes, CNJ says.
Drilling to start later this week
With target generation and drill planning now completed, drilling is scheduled to start later this week, CNJ said today.
The Phase I program — 20 holes for a total of 5,800m of reverse circulation and diamond drilling — is expected to be completed within 8-10 weeks, with results periodically released.
Phase I is targeting mineralisation associated the same geological horizon which hosts Galileo’s Callisto discovery, where mineralisation is associated with disseminated sulphides (+5%) within ultramafic rocks of the Mount Thirsty Sill complex and is hosted 5-10 metres above a gently east dipping sedimentary horizon.
This area immediately above the sedimentary horizon forms the principal target zone for the upcoming drill campaign.
Historical drilling at Mt Thirsty mostly missed the target
While over 700 holes have historically been drilled over the prospective horizon, only four were drilled to depths greater than 100m and intersected the target horizon.
And given cobalt-nickel mineralisation had historically been the focus at Mt Thirsty, the prospective horizon has remained unsampled for PGEs.
Phase 2 drilling will include 14,350m of infill drilling and an increasing focus on several geophysical and structural anomalies.
“The recent review by leading technical experts has given a much higher priority to hard rock exploration at Mt Thirsty following the Callisto discovery by Galileo Mining, less than 200m from the tenement boundary,” Le Page says.
“This review has identified horizons prospective for PGEs with an apparent strike in excess of 1.8km.
“Phase 1 drilling will test for southern extensions onto the joint-venture tenement, as well as other geological features of interest.”
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.
