Great Southern highlights East Laverton Nickel opportunity

Great Southern is preparing to kick off a new round of exploration at its East Laverton nickel project where recent work has altered its geological interpretation.

Previous explorers had been hampered by shallow cover, a focus on other commodities and a previous geological interpretation that has been turned on its head by leading exploration and geophysical consultants Newexco.

East laverton great southern — East Laverton tenements with magnetics and maximum downhole nickel values. Pic: Supplied

East Laverton project

The 400sqkm project is just 15km east of the town of Laverton and is dominated by the Diorite Hill layered ultramafic magmatic intrusion.

It has the potential to host both magmatic-type deposits and komatiitic type deposits.

Komatiites flows have been the main source of developed nickel-sulphide mines in WA and have been explored extensively since the late 1960s, making them well-known.

This contrasts with magmatic deposits that are commonplace elsewhere across the globe.

This has changed in recent times following the discovery of Nova leading to a string of magmatic nickel deposits being found. The Nova-Bollinger deposit in the Fraser Range has a current resource of 13Mt at 2 per cent nickel 0.8 per cent copper and 0.1 per cent cobalt deposit.

Exploration program

To test this new interpretation, the company is preparing to carry out a moving loop electromagnetic (MLEM) survey.

This is intended to detect any conductive sources of a Nova style and scale.

It is waiting on the impending grant of two tenements before starting the MLEM survey.

“East Laverton is highly prospective for nickel-sulphide discoveries, including of the Nova magmatic style which was overlooked by previous explorers who were focused on other commodities and deposit types,” chief executive officer Sean Gregory said.

“We look forward to the results of the planned ground MLEM survey which will be the first modern EM over this target and will be aided by an alternative geological interpretation that places the prospective basal contact in the north-east, rather than the south-west.”

“GSN now has exposure to gold at all of its projects and the added benefit of copper and other metals in North Queensland and also nickel-sulphide at East Laverton.”

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.