History could repeat and open a door to massive sulphides at Bow River. Pic via Getty Images.
Mining
The drillbit is spinning at Lycaon Resources’ Bow River project in a quest to find the next nickel sulphide discovery in the Kimberley.
Lycaon Resources (ASX:LYN) is targeting a discovery like Savannah North, a sulphide-rich nickel-copper-cobalt resource currently being mined by Panoramic Resources (ASX:PAN).
The 2014 discovery of ‘Savannah North’ resource at depth at Savannah, 60km away, effectively quadrupled Panoramic’s Ni-Cu-Co resource, highlighting the prospectivity at Bow River “given its analogous geological setting”.
Lycaon says new drilling will target beneath the current extent of historical drilling — a deeper, more primitive part of the intrusion — using historical and recent gravity data.
Down to a depth of 800m, the initial two diamond drill holes are expected to take about four weeks, targeting a prospective zone that is anticipated to be intersected between 350-750m.
“We have now begun a high impact diamond drill program which will be critically important to understanding if a large-scale nickel copper sulphide deposit exists at Bow River,” Lycaon technical director Thomas Langley says.
“The drilling is targeting another Savannah North type discovery, which opened up the prospectivity of the Kimberley after its recent discovery in 2014.
“No drilling at Bow River has occurred since this time and given the high-grade nickel and copper intersected in historical drilling in the past, we are of the view that Bow River presents as one of the best magmatic nickel-copper targets in Western Australia currently.”
Bow River includes two known nickel-copper-cobalt sulphide targets with sulphide-bearing intrusives, similar in style to Panoramic’s Savannah mine 60km further to the south.
Lycaon deems this nearology as highly-prospective for exploration at the Bow River and Salt Lick Creek intrusions, where outcropping gossans and anomalous soil chemistry has been mapped at surface over an area of 900m x 300m.
The surface expression of the intrusion has received most of the focus of historical exploration however, the broader intrusive undercover and at depth has received little attention, the company says.
In addition, exploration using more powerful modern day geophysical techniques such as ground gravity surveys to detect density anomalies deeper below surface has only been completed for the first time by Lycaon.
Downhole electromagnetic surveys will be completed post drilling to define if conductors are present that may be related to massive sulphide nickel-copper mineralisation.
Lycaon is also targeting the West Arunta mining province at its Stansmore project, also in the East Kimberley region, that is believed to host high value rare earths such as niobium – a crucial element for battery components.
West Arunta has significant REE discoveries including WA1 Resources’ (ASX:WA1) West Arunta and Encounter Resources’ (ASX:ENR) Aileron projects.
This article was developed in collaboration with Lycaon Resources, 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.
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