Assays are pending from RC drilling at the Hilditch gold and Kandui nickel prospects.
Maximus just drilled a near term gold mine and an emerging nickel sulphide discovery
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- RC drilling is complete at the Hilditch and Kandui prospects at the Spargoville project
- Drilling targeted gold and nickel mineralisation with assays due in 4-6 weeks
- Soil mapping is now under way and RC drilling is planned at Central Nickel prospect
Maximus Resources has wrapped up drilling at the Hilditch gold deposit, a near term cash maker, and Kandui, a budding nickel sulphide discovery.
The 7,511oz Hilditch is just one of several highly prospective regional gold deposits in the company’s Spargoville tenements in WA.
Hilditch presents a near-term production opportunity for the company, especially given the ease of access to its shallow gold resource and its location close to several toll-treating gold operations.
It’s also smack bang on the fertile Spargoville Shear Zone, between Karora Resources’ (TSX:KRR) high-grade Spargo’s Reward gold project and ~9km north of the company’s 251,500oz Wattle Dam gold project.
Drilling at Hilditch (7 holes for 870m) is focused on the expanding known mineralisation in all three identified lodes and exploring the potential for a fourth lode, with the goal of updating the mineral resource estimate.
Drilling at Kandui – northwest of the Spargoville and Mt Edwards nickel deposits – was designed to chase up a bunch of juicy legacy hits like:
2m at 2.4% Ni and 0.5% Cu from 74m (HRC025);
4m at 1.8% Ni and 0.5% Cu from 25m (HRC052);
2m at 1.2% Ni from 1m (HRC002); and
2m at 1.0% Ni from 74m (HRC041).
The company says it encountered “encouraging geology” at both targets along strike and below known mineralisation. All samples have been submitted for assay.
Once received, Maximus Resources (ASX:MXR) may use the additional information for the remodelling of the Hilditch gold mineral resource estimate and additional modelling of the Kandui nickel prospect.
RC drilling planned at Central Nickel prospect
Going forwards, RC drilling is planned at the Central nickel prospect which covers approximately 5km of ground between Estrella Resources’ (ASX:ESR) 1A nickel mine to the north and Andrews Shaft/5A/5B nickel mines to the south.
The plan is to follow up on previous air-core results which included 20m at 0.32% nickel, 139ppm copper, and 22ppb PGE from 0m, including 4m at 0.44% nickel, 76ppm copper, and 23ppb PGE from 12m.
The air-core drilling returned intersections of anomalous PGEs at a comparable stratigraphic level to ground EM conductors located along strike from the Andrew Shaft nickel mine.
The company says this suggests that untested legacy EM conductors could be associated with nickel sulphides at depth, given the abundance of PGEs found in the area.
The next phase of RC drilling at Central will aim to test the coincident geochemical/EM target along the Andrews Shaft horizon at depth.
Nickel-copper-gold-PGE soil mapping ongoing
The company is also conducting further soil sampling for PGEs at identified locations within the Kandui, Sorake, Pinnacles, and Le-Bar prospects with the aim of refining the delineation of prospective nickel targets over a more extensive area, to aid targeted follow-up drilling.
Assays from both the Hilditch gold and Kandui nickel prospects are anticipated in the next 4-6 weeks.
This article was developed in collaboration with Maximus 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.
