Drilling has returned thick intercepts of disseminated nickel sulphides at Nordic’s Pulju project. Pic: via Getty Images.
‘Sheer scale and extent’ of Nordic’s Pulju starting to emerge as drilling hits thick zones of disseminated sulphides
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- Drilling hits very broad zones of disseminated nickel sulphides w/ higher grade zones at Nordic Nickel’s flagship Pulju project in Finland
- Top assay of 117m at 0.22% nickel from 4.1m (includes 2m zone grading 0.6% nickel from 96m)
- Drilling expands the footprint of disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation at Hotinvaara
- Assays pending for a further 14 holes, resource upgrade expected before end of 2023
Nordic is in the fast lane for a resource upgrade at its flagship Pulju project in Finland after maiden drilling returned further broad intercepts of disseminated nickel sulphides with discrete higher-grade zones in almost all holes.
For Nordic Nickel (ASX:NNL), this serves to outline the outstanding potential of its Pulju project in the Central Lapland Greenstone Belt (CLGB), which is significantly under-explored for komatiite/intrusive-hosted nickel deposits despite hosting Boliden’s Kevitsa nickel-copper-gold mine and Anglo American’s world-class Sakatti copper-nickel-PGE deposit.
Nordic Nickel has rights over the entire Pulju Project, which itself already boasts an initial 133.6Mt resource for 278,520t nickel and 12,560t cobalt at the Hotinvaara prospect, based on historical near surface drilling only.
The Hotinvaara resource within the Pulju Project area just scratches the surface of the project’s potential as it represents just 2% of the company’s highly prospective 240km2 land package.
It also doesn’t address its depth potential, which has been tested by the 28-hole diamond holes totalling 15,432m drilled as part of the company’s maiden 22,000m drill program.
Initial results from the diamond drilling had returned multiple thick intercepts with the first hole returning intercepts such as 94.15m grading 0.2% nickel from 6.4m and 38.7m at 0.26% nickel from 149.3m including 0.65m at 1.49% nickel from 174.7m.
Large-scale drone magnetic surveying has also identified several new outstanding magnetic anomalies across the broader project area, with two large-scale anomalies of greater than 2km in strike length identified near the existing Hotinvaara resource.
A step-out hole announced in September, located 500m from the resource boundary, has significantly expanded the mineralised footprint and enhanced the prospectivity of the 2km-long Hotinsaajo anomaly, south of the Hotinvaara prospect, after intersecting disseminated sulphides over a width of 123.8m from 306.5m down-hole (based on visual logging).
Outstanding drill results highlight scale of Hotinvaara
Further assays from the diamond drilling have now highlighted just how rich Hotinvaara and the broader Pulju project is with almost all of the first seven diamond holes intersecting wide zones of disseminated nickel mineralisation with grades that equalled or exceeded the resource grade.
Notable results were:
- 117.9m at 0.22% nickel from 4.1m including 2m at 0.6% nickel from 96m,
- 98m at 0.21% nickel from 216m; and
- 85m at 0.22% nickel from 349m; and
- 95.9m at 0.2% nickel from 442m including 1.5m at 0.86% nickel from 504m in HOT013;
- 103.2m at 0.19% nickel from 37.55m in HOT019;
- 86.8m at 0.22% nickel from 15.2m in HOT007;
- 72.4m at 0.18% nickel from 126.4m; and
- 60.3m at 0.16% nickel from 243.6m; and
- 33m at 0.23% nickel from 425m including 2m at 0.5% nickel from 452m; and
- 42m at 0.26% nickel from 472m including 4.15m at 0.58% nickel from 483m in HOT012;
- 32.5m at 0.24% nickel from 103.5m including 2m at 0.53% nickel from 132m in HOT011.
The results both confirmed the potential highlighted by historical drilling and significantly expanded the footprint of disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation at Hotinvaara.
In the south-eastern part of the resource estimate, holes HOT011, HOT012 and the standout HOT013 further highlight the exceptional thickness of the nickel sulphide bearing host rock proximal to this region.
Sulphides intersected by these drillholes are predominantly in disseminated and blebby form that consist of pyrrhotite, minor pentlandite and trace chalcopyrite.
Hole HOT007 targeted extensions to the prospective ultramafic rocks to the north of the mineralised area and intersected near-surface sequences of peridotite and serpentinite.
In the north-eastern extent of the resource estimate, drillhole HOT019 intersected a significant thickness of prospective ultramafic rock.
Adding further interest, partial leach assays have confirmed the predominance of nickel in sulphides, which is expected to be a positive for future concentrate grades.
“The maiden drill program at Hotinvaara is continuing to deliver outstanding results, with extremely wide zones of disseminated nickel mineralisation encountered in almost every hole drilled,” managing director Todd Ross said.
“The sheer scale and extent of the deposit is what stands out from these drillholes. HOT013 was a particular standout, intersecting multiple intervals of above cut-off nickel sulphide mineralisation over a cumulative thickness of 428m within 538m of surface.
“Also of note is the discrete higher grade zones, with grades of up to 0.86% nickel in HOT013. This shows the potential of the system to carry higher grades, and an encouraging sign for our ongoing exploration at Hotinvaara.
“If we can vector into larger accumulations of higher-grade massive sulphides that are known to be present in the system, that will be a game-changer for the project.
The road ahead
Nordic is currently awaiting assays for the remaining 14 diamond holes, which Ross said are expected over the next month.
“In the meantime, work has already started on the MRE upgrade, which we plan to complete by the end of this year,” he added.
This article was developed in collaboration with Nordic Nickel, 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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