Impact Minerals has rung in the new year with an intriguing drill intercept of 138 metres grading 0.3 g/t 3PGM from surface at its Broken Hill nickel-copper-3PGM project in NSW. The drill hit along the southern margin of its Red Hill prospect included 12m at 1.5 g/t 3PGM - palladium, platinum and gold - 0.3 per cent nickel and 0.2 per cent copper from 103m down-hole.
The company said this latest drill hit was the first significant indication of nickel-copper-PGM mineralisation within the Red Hill intrusion and importantly, the intercept remains open at depth.
Impact Minerals’ Red Hill prospect is a geological feature referred to as a ‘chonolith intrusion’ which generally contain mineralised chilled margins which form as the magma intrudes into the existing rock strata.
According to the CSIRO, chonoliths with mineralised chilled margins have the potential to host significant massive sulphide deposits, either at the base or in shallow dipping parts of the mafic intrusion.
Impact’s technical team noted analogues to Red Hill include Lundin Mining’s Eagle mine, with 4.6Mt at 3.7 per cent nickel and 3 per cent copper, and the Eagle East orebody which contains 1.2Mt at 5.1 per cent nickel and 4.3 per cent copper. Both of Lundin’s deposits are located in Michigan, USA.
Impact’s new drill result at Red Hill compliments its break-through results from its Platinum Springs prospect and first-pass reconnaissance drilling at its Rockwell-Little Broken Hill gabbro prospects.
The drill hole tested a soil geochemistry anomaly along the southern contact of the Red Hill chonolith and confirmed for the first time the potential for disseminated PGMs, with associated nickel and copper mineralisation close to surface.
The higher-grade intercepts identified between 103m and 135m downhole are all within 25m of the contact of the intrusion with surrounding rocks, according to the company.
Other recently assayed drill intercepts from Red Hill, along the intrusion’s so called chilled margin, have defined what Impact calls a “ring of PGM”. One notable result drilled in 2020 was 33m at 0.2 per cent 3PGM, including 7m at 0.5 g/t 3PGM and 0.3 per cent copper from 110m.
Another 2020 drill hole at Red Hill returned 17m at 0.3 per cent 3PGM from just 2m, including 2m at 1.2 g/t 3PGM and 0.2 per cent copper from 8m. A third hit returned 14m at 0.4 g/t 3PGM from 80m down-hole.
Impact has now encountered strong, anomalous intercepts of 3PGM, with variable copper and nickel grades in ten of the last 12 holes drilled into the margin of the Red Hill chonolith. Importantly, all the intercepts have been within 30m of the contact.
The latest results add to what is now a significant body of evidence the ASX-listed, PGE-base metals explorer has collected, supporting strong mineralisation at its Red Hill prospect. The company is now digging through the huge amount of data accumulated from last year’s drilling campaign to prioritise its next program of drilling. No doubt Red Hill follow-up drilling will be high on the list, given its new ‘ring of confidence’.
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