Metals Australia Ltd (ASX:MLS) has drilled a substantial intersection of mafic hosted vanadium titano-magnetite mineralisation with zones of nickel-copper-cobalt bearing sulphides from only the first hole into the Manindi West magnetic trend on its Manindi Battery Minerals Project in Western Australia.
Chairman, Mike Scivolo, said this significant vanadium (iron, titanium) intersection with zones of nickel-copper-cobalt sulphide mineralisation is from MNRC071, only the first drillhole that has tested the Manindi West target.
The intersection of substantial thicknesses of vanadium with iron and titanium mineralisation at Manindi West, in only the first hole into this magnetic complex, is a major breakthrough for Metals Australia,” he said.
“In addition to vanadium, the hole intersected significant nickel-copper-cobalt mineralisation in sulphide layers, which only adds to the potential of this 3km by 1km magnetic unit that has been drill tested for the first time.
“The company will now fast track follow up testing – utilising diamond drilling, to determine the extent of the vanadium mineralisation as well as target higher grade nickel-copper-cobalt sulphide zones.
“This planned diamond drilling will also follow-up the recent lithium pegmatites results and further test for extensions of the high-grade zinc resources at Manindi – a project highly endowed with key battery minerals.”
The drill hole tested an EM anomaly associated with a major northwest trending magnetic zone of more than three km strike length and one km wide, located to the southwest and parallel to the corridor that contains the Kowari and Kultarr zinc resources.
The RC drillhole targeted the MNV02 EM anomaly that was interpreted4 as a strong bedrock TEM conductor approximately 50m below surface and dipping to the southwest. MNRC071, was drilled at -600 towards the northeast, targeting the top of the EM anomaly from 65m to 95m downhole.
The drillhole passed through a zone of pegmatite and oxidised material before intersecting a fresh, magnetic mafic intrusive unit from 48m downhole and continued in this unit, interspersed with pegmatite dykes, for the entire length of the hole to 130m depth.
High vanadium, iron and titanium and values in the mafic intrusive produced an overall intersection of 82m @ 0.30% V2O5, 27.5% Fe and >2% Ti from 48m downhole (Titanium was assayed via ICP-MS that has an upper detection limit of 2% Ti.
The majority of samples were over this limit and will be re-assayed via ICP-OES to detect the higher values). This zone included the following intersections of vanadium, titanium and iron in magnetite as well as the nickel, copper and cobalt sulphide mineralisation: – 52m @ 0.35% V2O5, 31.5% Fe, >2% Ti (0.03% Ni, 0.04% Cu, 181 ppm Co) from 48m Incl. 20m @ 0.44% V2O5, 34.8% Fe, >2% Ti (0.02% Ni, 0.04% Cu, 170 ppm Co) from 80m Incl. 10m @ 0.58% V2O5, 43.1% Fe, >2% Ti (0.02% Ni, 0.04% Cu, 169 ppm Co) from 80m.
The high iron, titanium and vanadium levels throughout the mafic intrusive intersected by MNRC071 are associated with magnetite rich zones interpreted to be associated with the lower layers of the western Youanmi mafic-ultramafic Complex.
The mineralisation appears to be very similar to the Youanmi Vanadium Project of Venus Metals (ASX:VMC) within the same mafic complex 20km to the northeast of the Manindi Project, that includes a resource of 330Mt @ 0.29% V2O5, 19.4% Fe, 5.95% TiO2 3 .
The 17m zone of massive to disseminated sulphide mineralisation intersected from 56m downhole in MNRC071 includes 6m of semi-massive sulphides from 59m downhole that produced the following nickel, copper and cobalt intersections: – 6m @ 0.08% Ni, 0.11% Cu, 506ppm Co (0.32% V2O5, 39.2% Fe, >2% Ti) from 59m incl. 2m @ 0.13% Ni, 0.08% Cu, 779ppm Co (0.32% V2O5, 39.2% Fe, >2% Ti) from 59m
These sulphides are hosted by mafic to ultramafic rocks and the analytical results/mineralogy of the sulphides indicates a potential mafic/ultramafic intrusive related magmatic sulphide zone. Limited previous exploration by Sirius Resources identified EM conductors to the north of the Manindi West trend and also intersected nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation southeast of Manindi West.
The sulphide intersection in MNRC071 represents a new discovery of mafic intrusive hosted nickel, copper, cobalt bearing sulphides on a new 3km long trend that has not been previously tested.
Further, diamond drilling is now planned to test this new sulphide discovery at depth and along strike. DHEM will be carried out in these holes to detect both in-hole and off-hole conductors for further drilling.
The company is well funded and has capacity to carry out a significant drilling campaign in order to achieve the objective of significantly growing the multi-commodity battery minerals resource base at Manindi.