Massive nickel sulphide hits continue for Toro

Follow-up diamond drilling by Toro Energy at its recently discovered Jumping Jack deposit in WA’s north-eastern Goldfields has intersected more massive and semi-massive nickel sulphides.

The deposit is part of the company’s Dusty nickel project in the Yandal Greenstone Belt.

The company says spot analysis using X-ray fluorescence suggests a range of between 1.28 and 3.5 per cent nickel from a 2.3m intersection from 232.1m.

Its follow-up hole was drilled about 18m east of where the initial Jumping Jack discovery was made earlier this month.

Toro says the latest result provides evidence that more nickel sulphide mineralisation could be present at the site that remains open in all directions.

Toro Energy Executive Chairman, Richard Homsany said: “This excellent intersection is very encouraging for the potential of Jumping Jack, Toro’s third discovery of massive and semi-massive nickel sulphides. Our targeted exploration activities continue to succeed and validate our confidence the Dusty nickel project’s potential to host significant nickel mineralisation.”

The Jumping Jack deposit was discovered through a 3.4m intersection from 240.3m including a 1.4m-thick lens of massive nickel sulphides.

X-ray fluorescence shows a concentration of between 1.44 and 4.66 per cent nickel from results at the discovery hole.

Jumping Jack is about 500m to the south-south-east of the Houli Dooley discovery, along strike of the Dusty Komatiite about 400m from the original Dusty discovery.

Toro says only 1km of the Dusty nickel project has been tested so far at a single depth along a 7.5km komatiite magnetic trend.

However, the company has already discovered three separate locations of massive and semi-massive nickel sulphides.

Geochemical sampling from the latest diamond drill hole is ongoing, however the company says due to industry-wide delays in laboratories in WA, any updates on assay results are not expected until later this year.

The Dusty project falls within Toro’s fully owned Yandal gold project, with further drilling set to continue at the site.

The diamond drilling campaign at Dusty began in March and follows the nickel sulphide discovery of 2020 when Toro announced a 2.6m hit going 3.45 per cent nickel from 184.5m downhole.

Earlier in May the company announced plans to rejig its uranium prospects.

A pit re-optimisation study at Lake Maitland in WA ticked off the idea of a stand-alone uranium-vanadium operation, with a big increase in potential ore, a 50 per cent increase in potential uranium production and 12.2 million lbs of vanadium pentoxide as a byproduct.

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