Great Western Exploration Limited (ASX: GTE) is on target to complete an airborne electromagnetic survey at the highly prospective Fairbairn Nickel Project in WA during the December 2022 Quarter.
The Fairbairn Nickel Project is located 900km north-east of Perth, on the northern margin of the Yilgarn Craton and within the Earaheedy Basin.
The Craton margin is highly prospective for base metal deposits, described below and as demonstrated by the discovery of Julimar and Nova, also located on the craton margin.
The Company plans to undertake a helicopter-borne VTEM electromagnetic (EM) geophysics survey within a demonstrated highly prospective portion of the project to define magmatic Ni-PGE-Cu targets.
The company recognised the prospectivity of the Fairbairn Nickel Project and staked a strategic tenement land position in line with Geoscience Australia’s 2016 report ‘Potential for intrusion-hosted Ni- Cu-PGE sulphide deposits’. This publication proposed that the margin of the Yilgarn Craton had significant potential to host magmatic Ni-Cu-PGM deposits, published prior to the discovery of the globally significant Nova and Julimar Deposits.
The Geoscience Australia report interpreted that where major crustal structures extend into the craton margin, the thinner margin crust at these locations would allow these structures to more easily “tap” the mantle, resulting in metal rich fluids to ascend and potential form economic metal accumulations.
The company interprets that the Ockerburry Fault (that flanks the Fairbairn Project is an example of one of these features, with high potential for magmatic Ni-Cu-PGM style mineralisation to have formed within the Fairbairn Project.
Little previous exploration has been completed at Fairbairn with work completed during the 1980s and early-1990s focussed on diamond exploration, with limited assaying for base and precious metals previously completed. The company reviewed these assay results available and found two anomalous holes coincident with magnetic Hughs recorded.
The Company interprets the magnetic highs represent mafic-ultramafic sequences below shallow cover, representing highly prospective targets for Julimar and Nova style magmatic Ni-PGE-Cu deposits.
Great Western intends to complete a helicopter-borne EM geophysics survey over these anomalous drill-holes with coincident magnetic highs, with the survey expected to commence late- October/November 2022.
