Strong conductor ‘lights up’ as Auroch dials in on WA’s next nickel discovery

Special Report: Busy WA explorer Auroch (ASX:AOU) has uncovered a strong ‘conductor’ at the underexplored Valdez prospect, which it believes could be a nickel sulphide body. A diamond drilling program will kick off early November.

The Valdez tenement, part of the Leinster nickel project in WA, is along strike and in the same rocks as Waterloo, Saracen’s (ASX:SAR) high grade nickel mine.

DHEM surveys on all drill-holes recently completed at the Valdez prospect have detected a strong off-hole “conductor”.

DHEM surveying involves sending a probe attached to a wire cable down a completed drill-hole.

The probe is able to detect conductive sulphide mineralisation off-hole, with the potential to “see” mineralisation up to 75m away.

The technique is widely used in base metal exploration, and has played a pivotal role in some of the share market’s most famous discoveries – like Sandfire Resources’ (ASX:SFR) DeGrussa and Monty discoveries and Sirius Resources’ Nova-Bollinger discoveries.

This use of DHEM has proven successful more recently at Auroch’s Saints nickel project in targeting and drilling massive nickel sulphides.

“We have [also] recently seen other nickel sulphide discoveries in WA identified by our peers using DHEM,” Auroch managing director Aiden Platel says.

“The Auroch team is very excited by this DHEM result. Given the proximity of Valdez to Saracen’s Waterloo high-grade nickel sulphide deposit, the company has always believed that a systematic exploration strategy at Valdez has the potential to discover significant nickel sulphide mineralisation.

“This strong DHEM conductor at Valdez now presents a high-priority drill target that we are eager to test with a diamond drill program in November.”

Strong exploration news flow from Auroch

Ongoing work includes a “tightly run” set of programs across both the Saints and Leinster projects, Auroch says.

Assay and DHEM results are pending for the recently acquired Firefly and North Sinclair prospects at Leinster.

RC drilling is expected to start shortly at the T1 target at Saints, about 30km west of Estrella Resources (ASX:ESR) recent discovery at Carr Boyd.

Diamond drilling will also kick off later this month at the Horn nickel sulphide deposit, aiming to upgrade the historic resource estimate to JORC (2012) – a must-have for ASX-listed miners and explorers.

Drilling is expected to kick off at Valdez in early November following resource drilling at the Horn.

Further AC drilling of less-advanced prospects across the Saints and Leinster projects is also ongoing.

This story was developed in collaboration with Auroch Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This story does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.