Conico, Greenstone eye Callisto extension after drill hit

The share price of mineral explorer Conico spiked 31 per cent during intraday trading on the back of news of a 65m intercept of disseminated sulphides at its Mt Thirsty joint venture just 400m south of ASX-listed Galileo Mining’s recent Callisto discovery near Norseman in Western Australia.

Conico recently kicked off a round of drilling at its 50-50 owned Mt Thirsty joint venture with ASX-listed Greenstone Resources where the pair set out to test for extensions to the recent palladium-platinum-gold-copper-nickel discovery by Galileo.

In the first diamond drill hole, the JV partners intercepted 65m of disseminated sulphides from 190m downhole including 22m of heavily disseminated sulphides from 233m downhole.

Conico has interpreted the hole to have intercepted the same geological horizon hosting the Callisto discovery.

The initial drill hole intercepted mineralisation hosted on the contact between an ultramafic sill and a sedimentary unit as is also the case at Callisto.

Similarly, the intercepted sequence of weakly disseminated sulphides through to heavily disseminated sulphides appears to mirror the sequence encountered at Calisto.

In addition, copper-nickel sulphide species were logged in the core — often associated with platinum group element mineralisation at Callisto.

With the core logged, cut, sampled and submitted for analysis, comprehensive assays are expected within six weeks including assays for palladium, platinum, gold, copper, nickel and rhodium.

With a first strike now complete, the drill rig has moved north, about 300m from Callisto and is currently sinking an RC hole.

The diamond drill hole was the first of 20 holes to be drilled as part of the joint venture’s phase 1 drilling campaign.

Conico Executive Director, Guy Le Page said: “The company is delighted to have intersected a thick continuous zone of heavily disseminated nickel-copper sulphides in the very first hole drilled in this program. Importantly, this hole is interpreted to have the same geological horizon as that hosting the Callisto discovery, potentially extending the known strike horizon to over 400 metres, while remaining open in all directions.”

In early May, Galileo reported its discovery hole returned 33m going 2.0 grams per tonne 3E – meaning palladium, platinum and gold – with assays showing 1.64g/t palladium, 0.28g/t platinum, 0.09g/t gold from 144m.

Notably, the broad intersection contained a high-grade interval of 1m running 3.21 g/t 3E — with assays showing 2.66 g/t palladium, 0.41 g/t platinum and 0.11 g/t gold.

In July Galileo continued its hot streak, reporting it had achieved its highest-grade assays from the new discovery so far with another 1m hit going a whopping 10.46 g/t 3E — consisting of 8.25 g/t palladium, 1.94 g/t platinum and 0.26 g/t gold from 170m

At the beginning of this month Galileo confirmed with assays consistent levels of rhodium grades over its previously reported intervals.

This was a key piece of the jigsaw puzzle as rhodium is the most precious of all precious metals at current price of US$14,250 per troy ounce as observed by British multinational speciality chemicals and sustainable technologies company, Johnson Matthey.

The metal demands such a price for its increasing use in pollution control systems.

The share price of Galileo followed a steep trajectory from 20 cents on 6 May to an intra-day high of $1.945 on 3 June.

Since then, Galileo’s share price has come back down but is still going strong, opening at $1.12 today as the company embarks on its next leg of extensive diamond drilling.

Just being within 200m of Galileo’s fence lines has helped lift Conico’s share price. It will be interesting to see what effect some positive assays will have.

Watch this space.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au