Blackstone Minerals is once again headed into the jungle surrounding its Ta Khoa nickel-copper-PGE project in Vietnam. It has kicked off an aggressive program of geophysics and drilling to hunt down more high-grade repetitions of its impressive Ban Phucnickel mine. The company continues to produce a wealth of sulphide targets and high-grade nickel results that should light a fire under its scoping study.
Blackstone Minerals’ Managing Director Scott Williamson said: “By using our in-house geophysics crew and our own drill rigs, we can cost effectively explore this globally significant nickel sulphide district using modern geophysical techniques to unlock the significant potential of the world-class geology.”
“We see potential to increase annual nickel production from the Ta Khoa Nickel-PGE project through targeting high-grade massive sulphide veins to complement the base load nickel sulphide feed to be potentially mined from the Ban Phuc DSS and King Cobra discovery zone.”
The mining of the massive sulphide veins at Ban Phucproduced an impressive 975kt at 2.4% nickel and 1.0% copper. Recent work by Blackstone has defined an exciting 25 massive sulphide vein targets within a 12 km long corridor which appear similar in nature to the high-grade veins at Ban Phuc.
The King Cobra discovery continues to provide a flow of outstanding results including the recently announced intercept of 38 metres at 1.12% Nickel from surface. Drilling continues at King Cobra with the company now mobilising a second rig into the district to follow up the targets being generated by Blackstone’s in-country geophysical crew.
Amongst the successes chalked up recently by Blackstone’s field crew is the 1,000 metre long ‘Ban Chang’ target. This extensive vein of massive sulphide lies a mere 2.5km southeast of the Ban Phuc plant with trenching and shallow drilling from the 1960s having produced results of up to 2.65% nickel. Blackstone’s No.2 rig is now onsite at Ban Chang undertaking systematic drill testing of this interesting new blue sky target.
Additional targets on Blackstone’s priority hit-list include the King Snake, Ban Khoa, Ban Khang, Suoi Phang and Ban Mong, all of which have returned high-grade nickel mineralisation from surface sampling and trenching. These targets lie in close proximity to the Ban Phucmill and are ear-marked for testing with both electromagnetic surveys and drilling in the coming months.
Blackstone remains on track to deliver a maiden resource for the Ban Phuc disseminated sulphide target in the third quarter of this year, with exploration of both the disseminated and massive sulphide vein targets driving a potential restart of the Ban Phuc concentrator which would see Blackstone catapult the mothballed mine back into production.
Blackstone is also well advanced with its scoping study for the downstream processing facility at Ta Khoa. Metallurgical testing is underway and a process flowsheet is being developed to generate a suitable nickel-cobalt product for the lithium-ion battery market. The company’s scoping study is also scheduled for delivery in the third quarter of 2020.
Blackstone continues to reap the rewards of a well-planned development program which will underpin its scoping study due for release in the third quarter of this year.blacks
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