The path to a major nickel discovery at Great Southern Mining’s East Laverton nickel project will get clearer after the company announced the date for commencement of drilling at its high priority targets.

Great Southern Mining (ASX:GSN) has booked a diamond and RC rig to start drilling in early July 2022 at the historically underexplored Diorite Hill Magmatic Complex. The drill program was recently awarded a up to $220,000 in a co-funded drilling grant from the WA Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme.

The EIS is awarded to companies undertaking novel and new drilling programs to make significant discoveries mostly at depth and under cover in areas to test new exploration theories.

It has played a star role in previous world class discoveries including the Gruyere gold mine near Laverton and the Nova nickel mine in WA’s southeast.

Drilling at the Nickel prospect will test a newly identified EM conductor, L076, modelled to be 2km by 1km in length with a second conductor called L124 also to be tested for the nickel-copper and PGE prospectivity of Diorite Hill.

“The team has worked hard over the last few months to refine the newly identified EM targets over what is an underexplored area of Laverton,” GSN executive chairman John Terpu said.

“The company has methodically progressed the East Laverton Nickel Project from the concept stage to the modelling of these compelling conductors. The next logical step is to drill test them.

“The company was awarded the EIS grant in May 2022 and with the grant funding window now open, the company has booked the required drill rigs and we are excited to be testing these highly prospective targets. As a discovery company, it doesn’t get much more exciting than this.”

 

600m under the earth

Work has continued since the conductors were identified, with 3D modelling providing a roadmap for the upcoming drill campaign.

The program will test L076 with a 600m drill hole comprising an RC hole with a diamond tail.

L124 is located next to a magnetic source within the interpreted intrusive and modelled to a 300m by 300m area.

Located in the centre of the Diorite Hill intrusion, the latter conductor is considered particularly prospective for platinum group metals and will be tested with a number of RC holes.

Meanwhile, the Company is also moving quickly to commission additional work work to identify additional conductors with the same modern exploration techniques at the Rotorua and Curra Komatiite units where GSN is looking to undertake a new moving loop EM survey designed by highly regarded geological consultants Newexco.

The survey is likely to take place after the end of the drill program. While it sits in prospective territory, little exploration has been conducted over the Rotorua Complex with limited RAB lines drilled by global mining giants BHP-Utah and Newmont in 1998 and 2005 exclusively on gold mineralisation.

This article was developed in collaboration with Great Southern Mining, 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.

This article also appeared on The Australian.