Lunnon Metals Limited (ASX: LM8) has commenced diamond drilling at the Long South Gap prospect, a high priority target hosted in the company’s Silver Lake-Fisher area at its Kambalda Nickel Project (KNP).
The drill programme will be a first pass test of the highly encouraging potential “channel” anomaly identified in the recent 2D seismic survey line. This anomaly is interpreted to represent at least one of multiple known nickel mineralised channels and conceptual trends prospective for nickel mineralisation. These channels and trends are interpreted to plunge from properties now held by Wyloo Metals towards, and onto, Lunnon Metals’ properties.
The programme that we are embarking on is a comprehensive and methodical approach to complete the very first test of an area with dimensions some 3.2km by 2.4km,” Managing Director, Edmund Ainscough, said.
“The size and quality of any potential prize is unknown but the Long South area is immediately adjacent to one of Australia’s most prolific nickel camps, and as such it requires a technical, data driven approach to maximise our discovery chances. We are not the only company that believes significant discoveries are still possible in the Kambalda district and our own exciting search starts now!”
Diamond drilling will be completed using a track mounted, lake-based rig that allows flexibility in set-up / positioning and removes the need for causeway construction, whilst also significantly reducing the surface disturbance related to the activity. The programme is expected to run over a number of months and will include the completion of a series of “parent”1 holes from which both downhole geophysical surveys and geochemical studies will be conducted to assess and identify the potential for off-hole nickel sulphide targets in the vicinity of each completed hole.
The possible depth to the prospective komatiite-basalt contact ranges between approximately 750 metres and 1,000 metres below the lake surface. Parent holes will take approximately three to four weeks to complete in each case (subject to the drilling conditions encountered), with subsequent supporting surveys, immediate litho-structural logging of the diamond core, application of portable XRF analysis for geochemical data collection, and assay results all used to assist with vectoring towards potential nickel mineralisation.
The programme is designed to progressively improve the company’s knowledge and fine tune the location of subsequent wedge holes, or new parent holes, to enhance the prospects of a significant discovery.
A range of potential outcomes are possible from this first series of drill holes and supporting exploration activities at the prospect area. The company highlights that whilst direct intersection of nickel sulphides remains the primary objective in all drill holes of this type (“hitting it on the head” so to speak), each new hole furthers the understanding of the geology and structure of an area that has remained untested for over 55 years, since the discovery of nickel sulphides in Kambalda by WMC Resources Ltd in 1966, despite its proximity to nickel deposits of such significant scale (see following section).
In April 2023, the company announced the results of a geophysical survey using the “mini vibro-seis” seismic data collection method. The survey was successful with two 2D seismic lines completed on the surface of Lake Lefroy, to the immediate east of the historical Silver Lake mine and to the immediate south of the Long Operation. In total, these mined nickel channels have generated approximately 13.5 million tonnes of past ore production and over 465,500 tonnes of nickel metal at an average grade of 3.45% Ni.
Assessment of the survey results highlighted a number of positive outcomes including:
- Excellent representation of the key prospective komatiite-basalt contact, notably shallower than expected;
- Identification of possible channel signatures (reflectors) at the komatiite-basalt contact;
- One identified possible channel signature (highlighted in Figure 2) has the potential to be a down plunge and fault-offset extension of one of the mineralised channels present at Wyloo’s Long Operation. These channels were successfully mined by IGO Ltd prior to the sale of Long Operation to Mincor Resources NL (namely the Long or Victor-McLeay channels), and
- Strong correlation between 3D structures interpreted by the company and breaks in the seismic reflection data, validating the company’s preliminary geological model.
