St George Mining looks to be making a solid run into the new year, with recently completed down-hole geophysics lighting up like a Christmas tree identifying eleven new nickel targets for drill testing in WA. This latest assortment of targets is clustered at the western end of the company’s Mt Alexander discovery suggesting the nickel-bearing ultramafic horizon extends beyond the recognised boundaries of the mineralised system.
The company’s exploration program continues to follow its tried and true methodology with drilling delineating the extents and location of the target ultramafic horizon at depth. Follow-up down-hole electromagnetics, or “EM” has then been utilised to spotlight a plethora of targets along more than 5km of strike.
Exploration continues across the Mt Alexander nickel discovery with drilling currently being designed to test the new, deep EM targets highlighted to the north-west of St George's West End prospect.
St George Mining Managing Director, John Prineas said:
“The concurrent use of drilling and downhole EM surveys is continuing to deliver breakthrough results with outstanding nickel-copper sulphide targets identified in an area that has never been drilled.”
“These are the deepest EM conductors identified in the Cathedrals Belt and support the continuity of high-grade mineralisation at depth and in the north-west down-dip direction of what we already know is a large intrusive mineral system.”
“The identification of nickel-copper sulphides in the conductors modelled from MAD192 and MAD193 will establish the West End Prospect – which covers a 2.5km strike of the Cathedrals Belt and straddles the major Ida Fault – as a fertile and highly prospective area for further mineralisation.”
The Mt Alexander nickel sulphide project is located in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia and lies approximately 110km south-west of the famed Leinster Nickel Province, or “LNP”. The LNP is one of the world’s most prolific nickel districts and hosts a collection of tier one mineral deposits, including the enormous 477 million tonne Mt Keith deposit near the town of Wiluna in the north. The area also hosts the Leinster group deposits, including the high-grade Perseverance nickel mines which boasts a resource of more than 21 million tonnes at 2.4 per cent nickel.
Mt Alexander occupies strategic position over the emerging Cathedrals Belt with the company’s nickel sulphide discoveries stretching along more than 16km of strike. The 2020 exploration and development program has put the spotlight on the 5km central core of the belt with drilling and test work focusing on the Stricklands, Investigators, Fairbridge, and Cathedrals prospects.
However, as the end of the year rapidly approaches, St George has thrown caution to the wind, stepping out drilling and testing the West End prospect and its surrounds. Exploration has extended the envelope of the recognised nickel mineralisation into prospect area, increasing the extent of the target horizon.
St George’s latest round of drilling included three new drill holes north of the West End and Investigators prospects, testing the down dip extensions of the host stratigraphy and intersecting well below previous drilling, down to more than 300m below surface.
A single drill hole north-west of Investigators, MAD185, intersected 15m of disseminated to blebby nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation from 311.3m down-hole. Subsequent down-hole EM has lit up five new off-hole conductors, with one-unit spiking at an impressive 33,000 Siemens.
Additional drilling north-west of the West End prospect, including holes MAD192 and 193, has extended the known strike of the nickel-bearing stratigraphy. MAD192 was drilled to 500m depth, intersecting 30m of the host ultramafic unit from 440.5m down-hole, with down-hole EM lighting up two high-intensity targets adjacent to the drill hole with one conductor tipping the scales at a massive 55,550 Siemens.
Drill Hole MAD193 intersected around 4m of sulphidic ultramafic intrusive from 462.2m down-hole, with subsequent EM highlighting a nest of four conductors below the hole which will require further drill testing.
St George’s ongoing exploration program at Mt Alexander continues to identify a raft of targets, over multiple prospect areas. With diamond drilling set to test the West End targets over the coming months, the company now looks set to walk down the path of a deeper exploration effort and follow the likes of Estrella and Ardea in searching for a nickeliferous motherlode in the depths of these sulphide-rich ore systems.
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By Matt Birney
