Explorer hunts battery metals discoveries with a real X-factor at Juiimar-style nickel-copper-PGE project

The hunt for a new Julimar style nickel, copper and platinum group elements discovery is on near the Wheatbelt town of Dalwallinu in WA, with NickelX formally starting field activities at the prospective battery metals project.

It is no mere nearology play to the famous West Yilgarn discovery made by Chalice Mining two years ago.

12 targets have already been defined in historic datasets from the project over a strike length of 6km of the Barra Barra greenstone belt, where mafic and ultramafic units have been identified.

Dalwallinu covers some 86km2 of the underexplored geological feature.

And NickelX’s (ASX:NKL) highest priority target, the D1 Target, has already returned highly anomalous assays from surface of 362-674ppm nickel, 201-349ppm copper and more than 49ppb palladium and platinum.

The geochemical anomaly is coincident with a strong magnetic feature identified from publicly available datasets, with NickelX planning to organise a close-spaced drone magnetic survey and airborne EM survey, along with an infill soil sampling program.

Field exploration and drill hole siting is being organised at Dalwallinu. It sits just 208km north east of Perth and only 1km off the Great Northern Highway on accessible private farmland, where native title has been extinguished.

“The Nickel X exploration team have hit the ground running soon after the acquisition of the Dalwallinu Nickel Project with key appointments made and geochemical, geophysical and field work programs either being organised or underway,” NickelX managing director Matt Gauci said.

“We believe Dalwallinu is an exciting opportunity for the discovery of Ni-Cu-PGM in the emerging West Yilgarn Nickel Province.”

Hunt for battery metals

It comes as miners and explorers the world over heat up the search for battery metals to power the shift from internal combustion engines to clean electric vehicles.

It seems obvious with the name, but it’s clear NickelX, which announced plans to acquire 80% of the Dalwallinu project only last week, has made the type of battery grade nickel normally found in WA its main focus.

That’s not a surprise, given the market for nickel in lithium ion batteries is poised to boom in the coming decades.

Yesterday, NickelX announced it had received approvals for the program of works at its Cosmos South nickel project, nestled near some of Australia’s biggest nickel mines owned by majors IGO and BHP.

DDH1 has been contracted to undertake the maiden 1500m drilling program within the world class Wiluna Greenstone Belt in the December Quarter.

This article was developed in collaboration with NickelX, 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.