Conico’s 50:50 joint venture with Greenstone Resources at the Mt Thirsty project in WA is proving a successful collaboration with a recent Phase 1 drill campaign returning the sixth best cobalt intercept in Australia for 2022 including previously unreported scandium.
Drilling has revealed three discrete mineralised zones; an upper nickel-cobalt-manganese-scandium horizon, a middle platinum group enriched horizon and a lower nickel horizon.
Notable intercepts in the upper nickel, cobalt & scandium zone include a significant 15.0 metres at 0.45 per cent cobalt, 0.91 per cent nickel, 5.42 per cent manganese and 40.9 grams per tonne scandium from 45.0 metres.
The middle zone of highly anomalous PGE mineralisation intercepted 9.0 metres at 0.14 g/t combined palladium, platinum and gold - collectively called 3E - 0.09 per cent nickel and 0.02 per cent copper from 223.0 metres.
The lower zone of thick and continuous nickel mineralisation intercepted 21.8 metres at 0.28 per cent nickel and 49.8 g/t scandium from 268.2 metres.
Scandium is a critical mineral essential for hydrogen fuel cells and is used extensively in the the aerospace and lighting industries. Conico says the current price of scandium oxide is a gobsmacking US$930,930 per tonne although it usually fluctuates between US$4000 and US$20,000 per tonne.
Conico’s Mt Thirsty project is located 16km northwest of Norseman, in WA and importantly, it is close to all crucial infrastructure. The deposit is flat lying, continuous and thick, starting from near surface and extending to around 70 metres below surface. Due to intense oxidation, the mineraliation is very soft and fine grained. The Mt Thirsty cobalt and nickel oxide deposit contains a JORC mineral resource of 26.9 million tonnes at 0.126 per cent cobalt and 0.54 per cent nickel.
The Phase I drill campaign was principally focussed on testing deep ultramafic sill horizons at Mt Thirsty, including any potential extensions to ASX-listed Galileo’s recent spectacular palladium-platinum-gold-copper-nickel discovery known as Callisto that is located within spitting distance of the Mt Thirsty northern tenement boundary.
Whilst much of the historical drilling at Mt Thirsty has targeted the shallow oxide resource in the top 100m, only a few holes have punctured the potentially lucrative mineralised horizon below this depth. Of the few holes that have extended deeper into the ultramafic sequence, none have systematically been assayed. The recent JV drilling utilised a combination of both reverse circulation and diamond drilling methods which allowed holes to be extended to an average depth of ~350 metres below surface, significantly deeper than the air-core methods typically utilised at Mt Thirsty in the past
A comprehensive multi-element program was embarked on, allowing for the identification of scandium which had not previously been assayed for. Notably, scandium is not currently included within the existing resource estimate. The potential addition of scandium to the existing cobalt-nickel Mt Thirsty project may provide a valuable by-product revenue stream.
Assays are still pending on 26 holes through the deposit.
Executive Director Guy Le Page, said: “Three discrete zones of horizontal mineralisation have now been defined with the confirmation of a lower, and potentially higher-grade Ni-Co-Mn-Sc zone outside of the existing resource serving to potentially compliment a number of the other optimisation opportunities currently under consideration for the existing Mt Thirsty resource and PFS, including the use of high-pressure acid leaching, the addition of a cathode precursor plant and the recovery of other elements like manganese and scandium. While the Joint Venture has yet to intersect high-grade PGE mineralisation similar to the neighbouring Callisto deposit, we remain encouraged by these results. Furthermore, as the exploration campaign has evolved over the past months, we have gained a much better understanding on the local controls on mineralisation, having more recently have focussed ourattentions on potential structural traps serving to accumulate sulphides.”
Adding to its grab bag of compelling battery and platinum group metals prospects, Conico and Greenstone are also targeting lithium along the western margin of the project. Only 150 metres to the west of the JV ground is the Mt Thirsty pegmatite where Galileo previously reported a series of steeply dipping, north-south trending pegmatites with average assay grades of 2.3 per cent lithium 1.87 per cent rubidium and 476 parts per million tantalum.
Preliminary geological mapping in the area by the JV partners identified eight pegmatite outcrops on the western most margin of the Mt Thirsty licences over a strike extent of 1,000 metres. Assay results from the maiden lithium-caesium-tantalum 11-hole reverse-circulation drill campaign have now been received. Although no significant intercepts were reported as part of the initial LCT drill campaign, a more detailed geochemical review of these results is ongoing given the known regional prospectivity for high fractionated and mineralised pegmatites.
Conico says options to consolidate the JV ownership structure to support an IPO are currently under review.
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By Matt Birney
