St George Mining has charged into 2021, with exploration kicking off across the company’s Mt Alexander project in Western Australia. The budding nickel explorer expects to begin a 4,000-metre diamond drilling program later this week, aiming to test a swag of deep targets along the under-explored western extents of the Cathedrals Belt. It is also looking to ramp up regional exploration having identified two new belts of potentially nickel-bearing ultramafic stratigraphy, parallel to its fertile Cathedrals Nickel Trend.
The company has outlined a high-intensity exploration program across the Mt Alexander tenure as it continues to develop the project with target-focused drilling on the main Cathedrals Trend. It also intends to conduct detailed ground electromagnetics, or “EM” across an emerging repetition of the ultramafic stratigraphy, which sits around one kilometre north of the Investigators and Strickland nickel discoveries.
St George is also designing programs of airborne geophysics and sampling across the recently identified Carnac Trend. It lies around 14 kilometres north of the Cathedrals belt and is rapidly shaping up as a new nickel discovery, with rock chip sampling returning assays of up to 2,475 parts per million nickel.
St George Mining Executive Chairman, John Prineas said: “The new conductors are located approximately 500m to 800m north-west of known massive sulphides in the Cathedrals Belt and are the deepest conductors identified in the Belt.”
“The discovery of new nickel-copper sulphide deposits in these locations would be a major success in our ongoing exploration at Mt Alexander and significantly expand the potential footprint of high-grade mineralisation at the Project.”
“We are also excited about activities planned across the wider tenement package at Mt Alexander. These areas are either underexplored or unexplored and offer an excellent opportunity to add to the exploration success we have already achieved at the Cathedrals Belt.”
“As the nickel price reaches a 10-year high, St George is well positioned to deliver significant shareholder value through its ongoing exploration and development programmes at Mt Alexander.
“With high-grade nickel-copper-cobalt-PGEs at Mt Alexander commencing 30m from surface, a large underexplored mineral system and a location in an established mining region of Western Australia – in the backyard of major mining companies – our Project commands unique attention amongst its peers.”
The Mt Alexander project is located 120km south-west of the world-class Leinster nickel terrane in the fertile North Eastern Goldfields of WA. The Leinster terrane hosts a wealth of nickel mineralisation including the giant Mt Keith operation and the high-grade underground nickel operations at Leinster itself.
St George’s project comprises seven granted exploration licenses adjacent to the regional Mt Ida fault and covers an area of more than 500 square kilometres of the emergent terrane surrounding the Cathedrals Trend. Whilst the company’s 2020 exploration program concentrated on the 16km long Cathedrals Belt, which hosts the Stricklands, Investigators, Fairbridge, and Cathedrals nickel sulphide discoveries, the renewed exploration campaign will also begin to build a pipeline of prospects across the company’s tenure.
The current 4,000m diamond drilling campaign will kick off at the Stricklands deposit, generating further samples for metallurgical testing before moving to test eleven new, deep conductive targets identified by down-hole EM at both the Investigators and West End prospects. St George has also submitted programs of works to the WA Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety for the approval of an additional 11,000m of drilling across the Cathedrals Belt as it continues drilling out several resource positions including the Investigators deposit.
Regionally, St George is set to launch programs across two new ultramafic belts within the company’s extensive tenure. The first target lies around 800m north of the Cathedrals Belt and appears to be a repetition of the nickel-rich stratigraphy. Initial investigations show the target geology extends along more than 3km of strike, with scout drilling confirming the highly desirable intrusive nature of the ultramafic stratigraphy. St George’s first-pass program across the Cathedral repetition will include a ground-based moving loop EM survey to assist in targeting future drilling across the extensive prospect area.
Further afield, a second trend has been identified in the northern project area which shows similar geology and the same east-west orientation as the Cathedrals belt in the south. The Carnac Trend is seemingly a new discovery and consists of ultramafic stratigraphy which sub crops along more than 3km of strike. Reconnaissance sampling has returned rock chips anomalous in both nickel and copper providing plenty of incentive to step up exploration. Upcoming work at Carnac will include a detailed aeromagnetic survey and systematic soil sampling as the company attempts to nail down the true extents of the target, which is partially covered by sand and soil cover.
With St George’s diamond rig set to commence round-the-clock drilling on Friday and programs of airborne and ground-based geophysics being designed for the coming weeks, the company has shifted into high gear for the new field season in its campaign of discovery across the nickel-rich Mt Alexander terrane.
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By Matt Birney
