Sultan is laser-focused on Kulin Hill nickel exploration

With aircore drilling confirming at least 2km strike of valuable nickel-bearing sulphides at Kulin Hill, Sultan has elevated the prospect to be its priority target for 2022.

While assays from the 74 hole Lake Grace aircore drilling program completed last month are not expected until March due to the ongoing laboratory backlog, the confirmation of thick mafic-ultramafic sequences and the geological similarity between Kulin Hill and important Gonneville Intrusion at Julimar has the company stepping up its game.

The full length and breadth

Sultan Resources (ASX:SLZ) is now in negotiations to access the full length and breadth of the body, some of which extends beneath a salt lake.

This will allow the company to assess the full potential of the target with electromagnetic techniques such as Fixed Loop EM (FLEM) or magnetotellurics (MT) undertaken to detect any areas of strong conductance that might mark the location of sulphide accumulation as the first step of a three-month work program.

Any conductors identified will be ranked and the priority targets drilled with either reverse circulation and/or diamond drilling.

Should access negotiations prove to be protracted, Sultan will assess the body from areas where access is already granted by drilling stratigraphic holes followed by downhole EM to generate an initial geological and geophysical understanding of the body.

More Lake Grace targets

While Kulin Hill has the lion’s share of Sultan’s attention, Lake Grace features two other notable targets that were tested by the recent aircore drilling.

Target Area 2, located about 20km southeast of Kulin Hill, was the subject of nine traverses of aircore drilling that intersected a variety of rock types ranging from felsic gneiss and granite to highly magnetic, mafic gneiss.

Additionally, the two deepest holes ended in dark green to black, magnetic mafic rocks containing olivine, pyroxene and feldspar.

While more work is required to classify the highly magnetic, mafic rock types and verify if they belong to a larger mafic-ultramafic sequence, the company noted that Gonneville is hosted in a mafic-ultramafic intrusive complex ranging from gabbro (mafic) to pyroxenite, peridotite and harzburgite.

Meanwhile, over at Target Area 3…

… which is much closer to Lake Grace, drilling has intersected mafic granulites, which are the host rocks to gold mineralisation previously drilled by Sultan at the project, rather than ultramafic rocks.

Sultan says this could easily reveal a previously unrecognised gold target.

Further work at Target Area 2 will be determined by the likelihood of the presence of a mafic-ultramafic sequence and could consist of ground EM followed by RC drilling.

Meanwhile, if gold assay results are favourable at Target Area 3, it could be ranked alongside the company’s suite of Lake Grace gold targets for further work.

Copper-silver exploration in New South Wales

Over in New South Wales, diamond drilling has intersected a strongly altered and veined structure containing sulphide minerals that correlates with surface mapping and sampling at the Razorback prospect in the world-class Lachlan Fold Belt.

This drilling was supported by the state’s New w Frontiers Cooperative Drilling Grants Program, which co-funded up to $81,000 of drilling to help cover 50% of direct drilling costs.

Downhole geological data successfully obtained during the drilling program, combined with long-awaited geochemical assay results, will assist in providing a vector towards zones of porphyry-epithermal mineralisation.

Further work over the next six months will concentrate on further identifying priority deeper drill targets at Big Hill, Tucklan and Ringaroo.

This work will include reprocessing of existing geophysical datasets and, where required, further acquisition of geophysical data in conjunction with surface mapping and sampling.

Limited percussion drilling may also be carried out to further define porphyry-related alteration zones and allow construction of 3D alteration vectors towards deeper drill targets.

This article was developed in collaboration with Sultan 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.