Widgie hits nickel in previously written off area south of Gillett

Widgie has made a significant nickel discovery south of the Gillett resource within its Mt Edwards project in WA that was previously considered to be “closed off”.

Assays such as 30m grading 1.17% nickel, 0.14% copper, 0.03% cobalt, 0.04 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 0.11g/t palladium and 0.09g/t platinum from 214m (23MERCD017) indicates that there is plenty of potential to unlock significant additional nickel resources in a largely untested area.

Discovering nickel in this area will be a major boost for Widgie Nickel (ASX:WIN) given that Gillett is part of the Widgie South project area that is a key component of the Mt Edwards project pipeline.

This is further supported by the upside potential presented by mineralisation being open to the north and now south of Gillette as well as the largely untested 1km corridor between Gillett and Widgie townsite further to the north.

“Drilling at Widgie South continues to pay dividends with further great results both within the existing resource shape and outside,” managing director Steve Norregaard.

“The latest results complement our previous results at Gillett announced in early April and mid-February reaffirming grade continuity within the current deposit and upside potential.

“Hole 23MERCD017 represents a very significant intercept well beyond the southernmost drilling at Gillett to date.”

He added that drilling at Widgie South is set to continue for the rest of the first half of 2023 to further expand, refine and define the limits of mineralisation, which will in turn feed into economic studies to demonstrate the inherent value of the project.

Drilling results

The intercept in 23MERCD017 includes higher grade zones of 5m at 2.07% nickel, 0.29% copper, 0.06% cobalt, 0.13g/t gold, 0.25g/t palladium and 0.22g/t platinum from 214m and 11m at 1.57% nickel, 0.18% copper, 0.05% copper, 0.03g/t gold, 0.1g/t palladium and 0.11g/t platinum from 232m.

This extended the known mineralisation about 100m beyond the previous drillhole MERC121 and 65m beyond the current resource wireframes to the south.

Widgie noted that the hole is located in an area that was previously closed off by historical hole MERC086, which appears to have been drilled above the basal channel hosting the high-grade nickel mineralisation.

Additionally, infill drilling at Gillett continues to reaffirm confidence in the Resource estimates and will be used in conjunction with the current drilling at Gillett North and South to re-estimate the Resource with the intention to increase the overall resource and the proportion of higher confidence Indicated material at Gillett.

Mineralisation at Gillett and Gillett North has now been proven over a strike length of about 1,350m with a current 300m vertical extent on the eastern limb of the antiform.

Upcoming work

Widgie plans to continue drilling over its broader portfolio throughout 2023 with both a reverse circulation and diamond rig continuing to operate on site.

With diamond drilling currently underway to provide a better understanding of the relationship between Gillett and Gillett North, high priority extensional drilling has also been planned to follow up on this exploration success south of current Gillett mineralisation with RC pre-collars to be drilled immediately.

This article was developed in collaboration with Widgie 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.