NickelX Limited (ASX:NKL) has commenced its maiden diamond drilling programme at the Fire Dragon Nickel-Copper Target within the Biranup Project, located in the world class Albany Fraser Orogen (AFO) in Western Australia.
The maiden (Phase 1) 1,212m diamond drilling programme will test for massive sulphides primarily at Fire Dragon and the FD1 conductors.
The target conductors at Fire Dragon and FD1 have been well defined via re-processing previous AEM (SPECTREM) survey data and follow-up MLEM.
The Phase 1 drilling programme is supported by an EIS co-funded drilling grant of $150,000 received from the WA Government.
Managing Director, Matt Gauci, said the strategy at Fire Dragon is not only to locate thicker and potentially economic extensions of the nickel-copper bearing sulphide zone intersected by historical drilling but also to better understand the style of this mineralisation (i.e., whether magmatic or hydrothermal, or a tectonothermal modification of either).
He said this will have important implications for nickel exploration throughout the Biranup project and the AFO.
The NickelX team are very excited to have contracted DDH1 and commenced drilling so soon after listing, based on well-defined conductors particularly the robust, late-time conductive response at Fire Dragon and FD1, with additional conductive responses observed at FD2 and FD4,” Mr Gauci said.
“Importantly, the maiden drilling program is supported by the EIS grant of $150,000 for the initial program and we’ve contracted DDH1 for a wider 5,000m program to expand on this initial program, and to test other highly prospective targets at Silver Dragon (Nickel-Copper) and Black Dragon (Gold).
“We look forward to a busy September Quarter of exploration, drilling and evaluation of the Biranup project – in particular the Fire Dragon, Silver Dragon and Black Dragon targets – and results will be released as they become available.”
The Biranup Project is comprised of six granted exploration licenses (EL’s) covering a total area of ~400km2 and is in the north-eastern Albany Fraser Orogen (AFO). Previous work at Biranup has identified 20+ EM conductors, including four high priority targets, that are considered highly prospective for magmatic nickel-copper mineralisation.
The high priority Fire Dragon nickel-copper target has been the subject of a SPECTREM AEM survey, ground MLEM surveys (by both previous explorers and by NickelX) and very limited historic drilling, which intersected narrow zones of semi-massive to massive sulphides (including pentlandite and chalcopyrite).
NickelX is currently diamond drilling the Fire Dragon nickel target(s). The AFO is still considered an emerging mineral belt as nickel-copper discoveries (e.g., the Silver Knight deposit (Creasy Group), Mawson’s deposit (Legend Mining Limited) and the Orion target (IGO Limited)) continue to be made after only 10 years since the discovery of the Nova-Bollinger deposit.
Total mineral endowment of the AFO is approximately 0.3Mt contained nickel-copper, whereas more mature belts, such as the Thompson Belt in Canada, have been explored for more than 40 years with total mineral endowment of 2.7Mt contained nickel.
