Nickel-copper explorer Legend Mining is planning an infill drilling program at Area D at the Rockford project in the Fraser Range where assay results last month produced the most encouraging results so far in the hunt for a Nova-Bollinger lookalike.
In an update to the ASX this week, Legend said it was planning infill drilling adjacent to a previous hole, which produced highly anomalous values of nickel and copper and sent the company’s share price soaring.
The best result was a 47-metre intercept from 64 metres to the bottom of the hole that assayed 0.29% nickel, 0.12% copper and 0.03% cobalt.
The assay result was based on 4-metre composite samples, which Legend has subsequently resampled at one-metre intervals that yielded further insights into the discovery.
The resampled assays, released this week, slightly improved the nickel result in the 47-metre intercept from 0.29% to 0.30% nickel, and identified several narrower intervals with even higher grades. These included 6 metres at 0.38% nickel and 0.15% copper from a depth of 96 metres. The peak values over one metre intervals were 0.47% nickel and 0.43% copper.
The in-fill drilling will focus on an area between two previous drill holes, about 1.6km south, which also produced encouraging assay results. The program will aim to determine the extent of the anomalous footprint of nickel, copper and cobalt.
Legend Managing Director, Mark Wilson, said: “These results are essentially a repeat of the earlier assays and confirm that the 4-metre composite sampling methodology that we are employing gives an accurate indication of nickel, copper and cobalt numbers. The new aircore drilling program is designed to investigate the anomalous geochemical footprint around holes RKAC151 and RKAC167 and more interesting gravity/magnetic features at Area D.”
The recent assay results are the most exciting results from Rockford since Legend began exploration in 2015, and have coincided with other compelling pieces of evidence that Area D could host a magmatic nickel-copper sulphide ore body. This includes the identification of precisely the same rocks that host the Nova orebody.
The upcoming drill program will include additional traverses over other aeromagnetic and gravity features at Area D.
The results will then be used to map out follow-up electromagnetic surveys using innovative moving loop or “MLTEM” technology. The innovative exploration tool has been crucial in narrowing down prospective targets within the vast Rockford project. As an added bonus, Legend’s work with MLTEM allowed it to bank a $1.3m tax refund for research and development costs earlier this month.
The company is exploring the Rockford area in a joint venture with Mark Creasy who holds 30% of the project.
Renowned orefinder Creasy, was also a partner in the breakthrough Nova-Bollinger discovery in 2012.
By Matt Birney
