Growth focused Western Australian nickel company St George Mining Limited (ASX: SGQ) has commenced a major, 13,000m, drill program at its flagship Mt Alexander project, located in the north-eastern Goldfields of WA, to drill across a range of nickel-copper sulphide targets.
HIGHLGHTS:
Major drill program to test nickel-copper sulphide targets is underway:
-
Drilling has begun at Mt Alexander with reverse circulation (RC) drilling at the Fish Hook Prospect in progress.
-
First ever drilling at Fish Hook with targets that include a large nickel-copper soil anomaly as well as co-incident electromagnetic (EM) and magnetic anomalies.
-
Diamond drill rig due soon to test new, deeper targets identified by the recent magnetotelluric and audio-magnetotelluric (MT/AMT) surveys along the Cathedrals Belt.
-
Diamond drilling will initially focus on the large conductive feature identified below the shallow high-grade nickel-copper sulphide deposit at the Investigators Prospect.
Results pending from additional MT/AMT survey:
-
Eastern extension of the Cathedrals Belt, including Fish Hook, has been covered by an additional survey.
-
New north-south MT/AMT survey lines over the West End, Cathedrals-Radar and Fish Hook Prospects have also been completed.
-
Results are pending with potential for additional nickel-copper sulphide targets.
Scoping study for mining proposal progresses:
-
Resource definition at the Stricklands shallow high-grade nickel-copper sulphide deposit is scheduled to start in early June 2020 with planned 3,000m of RC drilling.
This multi-rig drill program comprises approximately 13,000m of planned diamond and reverse circulation (RC) drilling across a range of nickel-copper sulphide targets. Diamond drilling will focus on testing new conductive features identified by the magnetotelluric (MT) and audio-magnetotelluric (AMT) surveys completed earlier this year.
These new conductive targets are located deeper than the current extent of drilling and have the potential to deliver new nickel-copper sulphide discoveries.
RC drilling will focus on testing shallow targets at the Fish Hook and West End Prospects, as well as completing the resource definition drilling at the high-grade Stricklands deposit. RC drilling commenced yesterday.
John Prineas, St George Mining’s Executive Chairman, said: “We are excited to be commencing this highly anticipated drill programme at Mt Alexander.
“The shallow deposits discovered to date confirm that the mineral system at the Cathedrals Belt hosts outstanding mineralisation with high grades of nickel, copper, cobalt and platinum group metals.
“The MT survey completed this year has confirmed the presence of conductive features beyond the current extent of drilling. This new data is a significant breakthrough in exploration at Mt Alexander. It has provided a blueprint to the structural framework of the mineral system that will guide our drilling of the deeper targets.
“In addition to drilling these deep conductive targets, we are excited to begin the first ever drilling at the Fish Hook Prospect. With a high-order soil anomaly coupled with EM anomalism and interpreted ultramafic intrusives, this drilling has the potential to deliver another greenfields nickel sulphide discovery.
“We are also pleased that this drill campaign will include the resource definition at the shallow Stricklands deposit. With high-grade mineralisation starting 30m from surface, we believe Stricklands can support a low capital cost, high-margin mining operation that we can fast-rack to development.”