Drilling at Horn nickel prospect ‘continues to excite’

Special Report: The Horn target continues to deliver with another impressive nickel-rich massive sulphide intercept in Auroch Minerals’ (ASX:AOU) second hole.

Drilling kicked off late October at the Horn nickel sulphide deposit – part of the Leinster project in WA – aiming to upgrade the historic resource estimate to JORC (2012), a must-have for ASX-listed miners and explorers.

A review of historical data also revealed a ‘structural control’ on the mineralisation that opened up kilometres of previously untested strike.

“It’s JORC 2004, but its high-grade massive sulphides up to 15m thick. There’s good copper in there as well,” Platel told Stockhead previously.

“Those resources de-risk our exploration in a sense, because we already have that nickel in our back pocket.”

Auroch’s second drill hole at Horn has now pulled up +7m of nickel-rich ‘massive sulphides’ (+80 per cent sulphides) from 143m depth, following on from the thick massive sulphides pulled up in hole one.

Importantly, this intersection is 15m further north along strike from a historic intercept of 14.66m at 2.19 per cent nickel and 0.48 per cent copper.

Auroch Horn Prospect — Caption: Horn Prospect showing current drill program (hole 2 at top) and the mineralised trend. Pic: Company Supplied

This extends the mineralisation where previously it was thought to have ‘pinched’, Auroch managing director Aiden Platel says.

“The thickness and continuity of the massive nickel sulphide mineralisation at such a shallow depth continues to excite, and we look forward to what the remainder of the diamond programme and the pending assays results will bring,” he says.

“We are already looking beyond this current programme and planning drilling programmes to explore the large strike potential to the north of the Horn Prospect.”

Drilling continues, with a further four holes at Horn remaining.

This article was developed in collaboration with Auroch 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.