Sultan Resources is tapping into the nickel potential of its Lake Grace project in WA, hunting for nickel sulphides along the same belt of rocks that host Chalice’s world class Julimar discovery.

Sultan (ASX:SLZ) has kicked off the first phase of reconnaissance aircore at Lake Grace, 215km south-east of Julimar, where geophysics has identified more than 25km of potential cumulative strike length of ultramafic rocks.

All up, 29 holes will be drilled targeting areas of known and interpreted ultramafic occurrences at Lake Grace, which has previously been studied for its gold potential.

Ultramafics typically host deposits like the nickel-copper-PGE discovery at Julimar, but it’s not just about interpretation.

Nickel, cobalt

Historic exploration at Lake Grace has shown ultramafic rocks with evidence of nickel and cobalt bearing sulphides.

The aircore program will look to confirm the presence of ultramafic rocks interpreted from magnetics and determine the prospectivity of the region for hosting nickel sulphide deposits.

Chalice’s success has demonstrated the potential of the belt on the western edge of the Yilgarn Craton, a region rich in possibilities given its virgin nature compared to areas like the Eastern Goldfields.

Majors have been stalking the area around Sultan’s turf as well, with global mining giant Anglo American and Gruyere gold mine owner Gold Road Resources in the vicinity, a hint there may be a bit of promise around Lake Grace.

Sultan
Lake Grace sits in the same mobile belt as Chalice’s Julimar. Pic: Sultan Resources

Ultramafics in first holes

The aircore program began at the northern end of the project near the farming town of Kulin, where ultramafic rocks had been identified in historic drilling and Sultan’s mapping.

Of the first four holes completed at the target ultramafic lithology was confirmed in three of them, a solid start.

They lie about 2km north-west of historic diamond holes, confirming the long strike extent of the first target.

Early days

While it is extremely early days – that strike length is certainly enough space for something very big – Chalice’s Julimar is a 26km long prospect but its Gonneville resource, the largest nickel sulphide discovery globally in 20 years, is only found in the bottom 1.9km.

The aircore rig will aim to traverse further ultramafic-prospective areas across Sultan’s E70/5095 licence before Christmas and return to finish the program further to the south on E70/5085 in January.

Full geochemical analysis, coupled with petrographic interpretation and possible QEMSCAN testing, will be undertaken on the bottom of hole samples.

 

 

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.

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