REZ looks to have uncovered more than the nickel holy grail at its East Menzies gold project in WA, with drilling now delivering shallow zones of mineralisation that also include the valuable and highly-sought-after green metals cobalt and platinum group elements.

Resources & Energy Group (ASX:REZ) revealed today that drilling at the Springfield prospect had intersected shallow zones of disseminated nickel sulphides along with valuable by-products cobalt and platinum group elements (PGEs).

Nickel resources are usually divided between laterite or sulphide deposits. Sulphides are the holy grail for explorers because they are easier and cheaper to process. This is also what makes nickel sulphides the preferred choice of electric vehicle battery makers.

But to have cobalt and PGEs as well makes this discovery even more valuable for the Richard Poole-led company.

“The results further demonstrate that the Springfield area is not just prospective for magmatic nickel sulphide mineralisation, but also the revenue elements of cobalt and PGEs,” Executive Director Richard Poole said.

“This could be a game changer for REZ and is extremely encouraging that East Menzies looks to be evolving into a large multi-commodity deposit, with this new discovery potentially having a significant positive impact on the economics of the project.”  

ASX-listed, Sydney-based REZ noted that four of the six holes intersected broad intervals of finely disseminated nickel-bearing sulphide, with elevated cobalt, palladium, and platinum.

Nickel sulphides collectively total 200m of mineralisation from 826m of drilling, which returned a peak result of 33m at 0.3% nickel, 0.02% cobalt and 0.32% sulphur from just 50m.

Historic drilling returned a previous best result of 8m at 0.64% nickel, 0.047% cobalt and 1.07% sulphur from 52m.

“The recent results together with earlier scout investigation, and historical exploration have now opened up a significant area of prospective rocks within the greater East Menzies gold project area for nickel, cobalt, copper, and platinum group elements,” Executive Director Richard Poole said.

“It allows for the possibility that the ultramafics and nearby lithologies may host larger accumulations of disseminated and massive nickel-iron sulphides.”

The prospective area has now been extended to a strike length of 2.5km, with over 6sq.km of fertile ground identified and plenty of scope to expand this.

REZ has now started planning work to pave the way for a ground moving loop electromagnetic (MLEM) survey over the prospective komatiitic basement.

 

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Resources & Energy Group, 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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