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More than a trickle of nickel: High-grade sulphide hits flow at Auroch’s Saints Nickel Project
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Auroch Minerals’ just clocked nickel sulphides in the latest drilling at Saints Nickel Project in Western Australia, with assays of up to 6.92m at 2.42% nickel, 0.17% copper, and 0.63 g/t PGE returned on top of samples grading as high as 8.8% nickel.
Auroch says high-grade mineralisation has been intersected over two main zones at the site, with assays pending above the upper zone in hope further extensions will be made.
Results such as 2.13m at 3.26% nickel, 0.19% copper and 1.24 PGE from 167.99m, including 0.31m at 8.83% nickel, 0.44% copper and 2.91 PGE from 169.81m have been returned over the two main zones.
The program is well on the way to upgrading and extending the current Saints Nickel Project mineral resource of 1.02Mt at 2.0% nickel for 21,400t of contained nickel.
10 drill holes for 2,667m have been completed, including three holes for composite samples required for the Saints scoping study metallurgical test work as Auroch (ASX:AOU) looks to leverage record nickel prices of US$100,000t through near term development.
Saints alive: Near-term production
“This is an excellent result for the first hole of our current diamond drill programme at Saints,” AOU managing director Aidan Platel said.
“We are working hard to fast-track assay results so that we can commence work on upgrading the Saints resource.
“We believe the Saints Nickel Project presents significant economic value, and the team is working hard on completing the Saints Scoping Study as we look forward to potential near-term production.”
Logging and sampling of the drill core is being fast-tracked so that the geological information and geochemical assay results can be used for the planned upgrade to the Saints MRE, which along with the metallurgical test work, is also critical to the Saints scoping study.
This article was developed in collaboration with Auroch Minerals, 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.
