Miramar stunned by nickel potential at underexplored Gidji

A pleasantly excited Miramar Resources just picked up the sweet scent of nickel, massively enhancing its Gidji joint venture project, which already has the potential to host one or more significant gold deposits.

A review of new and historical data – including aircore drilling – over the project had uncovered a cluster of highly anomalous nickel and copper results where the magnetic signature of the Highway ultramafic is the strongest.

The highest nickel and copper results also occur in an area of structural complexity where northeast-trending faults crosscut the earlier stratigraphy.

Miramar Resources (ASX:M2R) says calculating the “Kambalda Ratio” for the same dataset highlighted two parallel zones of strongly anomalous nickel and copper when normalised against chromium and zinc respectively.

The “Kambalda Ratio” is used to highlight potential nickel sulphides where higher values are indicative of mineralised ultramafics.

Executive chairman Allan Kelly said the potential for nickel sulphide mineralisation at Gidji alongside the many gold targets currently being explored was thrilling for the company.

“It’s well known that gold and nickel mineralisation occur in close proximity at many places within the Eastern Goldfields region,” he added.

“Although the Highway Ultramafic hosts nickel sulphide deposits in at least two locations along the Boorara Shear/Bardoc Tectonic Zone, there has been minimal targeted nickel exploration at Gidji.

“The new nickel sulphide targets we have identified again confirm how underexplored the Gidji project is, not just for gold, but for other commodities as well,”

Nickel prospectivity

The 80%-owned Gidji project contains about 10km of strike of various ultramafic units, including the Highway ultramafic that hosts the Scotia and Saints nickel sulphide deposits further to the north.

However, outcrop of this highly prospective unit is minimal due to the presence of transported overburden and the Gidji Paleochannel which crosscuts the Boorara Shear Zone in the vicinity of the Marylebone gold target.

This is compounded by sporadic historical drilling that is shallow and lacking in multi-element data, which contrasts with Miramar’s routine use of multi-element analyses as part of its aircore drilling.

Ramping up exploration

Miramar is currently awaiting a large number of assay results from its December 2021 aircore drilling program and recent reverse circulation drilling.

This includes multi-element data over most of the project, which has been lacking in previous historical exploration.

Once all outstanding multi-element assay results have been received, the company will investigate the opportunity to conduct an electromagnetic survey over one or more of the new nickel sulphide targets.

This article was developed in collaboration with Miramar 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.