Galileo Mining Ltd (ASX: GAL) has commenced its 2021 exploration field programmes at the company’s Fraser Range nickel project in Western Australia.
Managing Director, Brad Underwood, said geophysical survey teams are now undertaking electro-magnetic (EM) programmes aiming to define conductive anomalies associated with nickel sulphide mineralisation for drill testing.
We are very pleased to be back working in the field at our Fraser Range Project where we have already identified small but significant amounts of nickel sulphide in a greenfields environment with potential for major discoveries,” Mr Underwood said.
“The EM surveys which started this week are designed to locate conductors that could be associated with nickel sulphide mineralisation.
“Additionally, drilling in February aims to test a well-developed conductive anomaly at the Lantern East Prospect as well as focussing on the existing sulphide mineralisation at the Lantern South Prospect.
“We are a nickel sulphide explorer with a strategy of making greenfields discoveries in known mineralised provinces at our Fraser Range and Norseman Projects. With the price of nickel exceeding US$18,000/t this is a great time to be exploring for nickel sulphide. A discovery in 2021 could be transformational for the company.”
EM surveying is underway at the Delta Blues prospect where drilling in late 2019 intersected nickel prospective host rocks with weathered sulphides observed in petrology samples.
Large areas of prospective ground have yet to be covered and surveying is designed to continue until at least the end of April with the expectation that new conductive targets will be generated for drill testing.
Mr Underwood said EM surveying is a very useful tool in the exploration for nickel sulphide mineralisation due to the conductive response of sulphide minerals that contain nickel. Massive and semi-massive nickel deposits regularly exhibit conductive signatures when a current is passed through the earth.
When the surface input current is switched off the secondary current produced in the conductive body can be measured. The decay of the secondary current is then recorded at surface and the observed measurements are modelled by a geophysicist to provide the targets for drill testing.
An RC drilling rig is contracted to undertake a drilling program at the Lantern Prospects commencing in mid- February. Approximately 1,200 metres of drilling is planned at the Lantern East and Lantern South prospects. Initial drilling at Lantern East was unable to determine the source of the conductive anomaly and subsequent EM surveying provided additional data to allow for remodelling of the targets.
The revised models have conductivities ranging from 2,500 Siemens to 3,925 Siemens and with the top of both bodies less than 180 metres below surface.
Drilling is planned at the Lantern South prospect to follow up on sulphide mineralisation previously intercepted. Drillholes are planned to the south of LARC012 to expand the known area of mineralisation along the margin of the ultramafic intrusion. Previous intercepts at this prospect include 41 metres @ 0.19% nickel and 0.14% copper from 55m in LARC012.
