Maximus Resources Limited (ASX:MXR) has received significant assay results from air-core drilling at the newly discovered Misho Nickel Prospect, located 25km from BHP’s Nickel Concentrator in the world-class Kambalda district, Western Australia.
These initial results exceed our expectations from a first- pass air-core programme. It is exciting at this early-stage exploration programme, to intersect strong nickel intervals and highly anomalous copper and PGEs, suggesting a nickel sulphide origin rather than lateritic supergene enrichment of nickel, indicating the potential discovery of a fertile mineralised komatiite channel,” Managing Director, Tim Wither, said.
“The results are a fantastic start for the Company’s renewed nickel exploration programme and give us confidence in continuing drill testing many more prospective nickel targets across the highly fertile Spargoville tenements.
“The company remains well funded to pursue our systematic gold and nickel exploration programmes. We look forward to receiving the remaining assay results for Misho and the other gold and nickel targets, and we are excited to start the follow-up reverse circulation drill programme at Misho in the coming weeks.”
Misho Nickel Prospect (Nickel rights 80% Maximus)
The completed air-core (AC) drill programme was designed to target nickel sulphide path-finder elements such as copper and PGE (platinum group elements) along an interpreted basal contact position. The Misho nickel prospect was targeted by a distinct magnetic feature, located ~1km north of Estrella Resources Limited’s historical high-grade 1A nickel mine which produced ~112,000t @ ~3.8% Ni.
To narrow the search for Kambalda-style nickel sulphide deposits, it is crucial to identify the basal contact position of komatiite channels, which is the primary source of economic nickel deposits in the Kambalda region. Legacy drilling to the north of the 1A Mine indicates that only the flank of a mineralised channel was intersected, and this area is surprisingly under-explored.
AC drilling by Maximus has effectively defined the location of the komatiite basal contact and associated Ni-Cu- PGEs in the regolith, indicating fertile ultramafics aiding follow-up reverse circulation (RC) drilling. 1AAC007 intersected highly weathered ultramafic saprolite, with observed gossan at the centre of the interpreted channel.
The interpreted komatiite channel was identified through the observed curvature of the magnetic geophysical survey.
The Misho nickel prospect is interpreted to be an overturned and west-dipping basalt/komatiite sequence. Drillhole 1AAC007 was assayed on a priority basis due to promising field observation, encouragingly intersected 20m @ 0.53% Ni, 492ppm Cu, 126ppb PGE from 10m, including 4m @ 0.92% Ni, 1336ppm Cu, 238ppb PGE from 10m including 2m @ 1.21% Ni, 1705ppm Cu, 987ppm Co, 293ppb PGE from 11m.
Forward Plan – Nickel Exploration
Maximus’ Spargoville tenement package is highly prospective for Kambalda-style komatiite-hosted nickel sulphide mineralisation, which features a ~16km extension of a fertile regional ultramafic belt hosting several nickel deposits including Widgie Nickel Limited’s Mt Edwards Project.
The tenements remain relatively untested, due to then low commodity prices, which limited the amount of nickel- focused exploration by previous owners, presenting the company with an excellent opportunity to potentially discover nickel sulphides in parallel with our advanced gold exploration. The company continues to generate nickel exploration targets, from legacy geochemical and geophysical datasets, with planning and approvals underway for additional air-core drill programmes.
The company completed a ~4,250m multi-target gold and nickel AC drill campaign in early March across several priority targets with majority of assay results still pending.
As validated at the Misho nickel prospect, the early-stage air-core drilling aims to cost-effectively define potential fertile ultramafic/basal contacts, to narrow in on prospective targets for follow-up RC drilling. Assay turn-around times continue to be longer than anticipated and remaining assay results are expected to be received in two to four weeks.
