The upside at Azure’s Andover nickel-copper discovery is massive

Special Report: Hitting shallow high grade nickel-copper in drilling at the new VC23 target highlights the Andover project’s potential to host “multiple nickel-copper sulphide deposits”, Azure says.

Azure Minerals (ASX:AZS) has surged ~185 per cent since it potentially hit the big one in its very first drillhole at the Andover nickel-copper project in WA in October.

The VC7 nickel-copper discovery – 1km-long, ~ 200m thick and strongly mineralised – is currently being drilled ahead of a maiden resource.

But Azure has completed FLTEM surveying of 10 separate geophysical anomalies located throughout the Andover project area.

That’s 10 more potential ‘VC7’s’ just waiting to be drilled.

EM surveys map sub-surface changes in electrical conductivity and are useful – but not usually perfect — tools for finding nickel sulphides.

But in every hole at Andover, massive sulphides (the best stuff) coincide with strong electromagnetic conductors detected by EM surveys.

A 100 per cent hit rate.

The first of these targets to be tested, VC-23, has just come back with the goods in the first three drill holes.

Testing of the drill core by hand-held pXRF indicates the presence of high nickel grades “within the massive sulphide bands”. A fourth hole is in progress.

“This is a very exciting result for Azure and highlights the potential of Andover to host multiple nickel-copper sulphide deposits,” Azure managing director Tony Rovira says.

“EM surveying has identified numerous conductors indicative of bedrock-hosted sulphide mineralisation and, geologically, Andover does not appear to have any physical characteristics that may generate false positives.

“Importantly, wherever we have drilled an EM conductor at Andover we have intersected nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation and this 100% hit-rate has continued with the successful drilling of the new targets at VC-23.

“While most of our drilling in 2021 will be focused on delivering a JORC mineral resource for the VC07 conductor several other significant, high-priority conductor targets have been identified and drilling of these will be tested concurrently.”

This article was developed in collaboration with Azure Minerals, 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.