Legend Mining has ended its 2020 field season in dramatic style with its latest drill hole at the Mawson nickel discovery in WA intersecting a total of 43.1m of massive sulphides. The wealth of mineralisation includes one continuous intercept of 31.1m, providing a strong indication as to the tremendous untapped potential of the nickel-bearing system and intimating that the company’s ongoing exploration has perhaps only scratched the surface of the discovery.
Drill hole RKDD034 was designed to twin a previous drill hole in the central prospect area, with the aim of providing samples for metallurgical testing. The drill hole encountered several massive sulphide intercepts between 100m and 200m down-hole before coring into the company’s longest massive sulphide interval to date, between 200.7m and 231.8m, returning over 31m of mineralisation.
This intercept far exceeded the intercepts in the original drill hole, RKDD008, which returned a maximum width of 12.8m of massive sulphide.
RKDD034 encountered two further narrow zones of sulphide mineralisation further downhole, perhaps hinting at the depth potential of the system and providing a swag of targets for follow up with both down-hole geophysics and drilling.
Legend now appears to be gaining a greater understanding of the mineralisation and sub-surface architecture at Mawson, allowing it to track down the elusive lodes along strike and at depth. The discovery follows in the footsteps of the Nova-Bollinger discovery back in 2012 and will no doubt put the spotlight firmly back on the metal-rich terrane.
Legend Mining Managing Director, Mark Wilson said:
“The 2020 field season has ended in spectacular fashion at Mawson with hole RKDD034 intersecting 43.1m of massive nickel-copper sulphide including one section of 31.1m of continuous massive mineralisation. The scale of the massive mineralisation in this hole talks to the potential of Mawson. The hole was designed to provide samples for phase 1 met testing, the results of which are expected in February next year.”
“Diamond hole RKDD033 has also provided a potentially significant pointer for work next year, with nickel-copper sulphide intersected within intrusive host rocks at a deeper level than previously drilled at Mawson.”
The company’s Mawson nickel discovery lies on the eastern margin of its Rockford project in Western Australia. The project is located 250km east of Kalgoorlie and covers more than 3,000 square kilometres of the famed Fraser Range, cementing the company’s position as one of the dominant land holders in the region.
In the last decade the Fraser Range has emerged as one of the world’s newest nickel terranes following the discovery of a number of intrusive-related sulphide deposits, along more than 100km of strike, including IGO’s venerated Nova-Bollinger nickel-copper-PGE mine, which commenced operations back in 2017 with a resource of 14.3 million tonnes at 2.3 per cent nickel and 0.9 per cent copper.
Legend’s Mawson discovery is located in the central portion of the belt where systematic exploration across the prospect has uncovered a broad zone of nickel-copper mineralisation. The base-metal mineralisation is interpreted to be associated with a large intrusive, mafic-ultramafic body and shows marked geological similarities to the nearby Nova discovery.
The mineralised envelope at Mawson has been outlined over a strike length of more than 1,200m and is up to 500m wide, with the geochemical footprint of the discovery remaining open to the north. Exploration has outlined multiple sulphide lodes across the prospect area with the ongoing drilling program now chasing these lodes to the north, where the mineralisation plunges to depth.
The company has also recently completed a diamond drill hole in this northern target area, testing the down plunge extensions to the sulphide lodes and a down-hole electromagnetic target. RKDD033 intersected the host mafic-ultramafic intrusive stratigraphy and associated sulphides from around 200m down-hole before sliding into a deeper sulphide system at more than 390m depth. The deeper sulphides were intersected over a 11m interval and varied from disseminated to massive sulphides, demonstrating the potential of the discovery.
Legend now has the samples from RKDD033 and RKDD034 headed to laboratory and is likely be looking forward to the results like children waiting for Santa. However, whilst the drilling has finished for the year, down-hole geophysics continues and with metallurgical test work also underway, Legend may deliver a few more surprises in the lead up to Christmas.
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By Matt Birney
