Growth-focused Western Australian nickel company St George Mining (ASX: SGQ) has announced that ongoing exploration programs have generated additional strong targets for the discovery of more nickel-copper sulphides at the Mt Alexander Project, located in the north-eastern Goldfields.
HIGHLIGHTS
Soil survey at the Fish Hook Prospect identifies a nickel soil anomaly with a strike of 700m:
· 1,260 soil samples from Fish Hook return assays that include anomalous values indicative of ultramafic rocks below surface
· Most highly anomalous assays connect in a linear trend consistent with the interpreted eastern extension of the mineralised Cathedrals ultramafic
· Surface moving loop electromagnetic (MLEM) survey to be completed at Fish Hook ahead of maiden drill programme
Extensive geophysical surveys being launched across the Cathedrals Belt to identify further nickel-copper sulphide targets:
· MLEM survey to be completed at the Bullets, West End and Fish Hook Prospects
· High temperature SQUID sensor being used in the MLEM survey to minimise potential interference by conductive cover and to optimise depth of penetration
· Inaugural seismic survey planned for the Cathedrals Belt to investigate the structures associated with the mafic-ultramafic intrusives that host nickel-copper sulphides
Drilling of EM conductors continues:
· MAD172 underway to test the first of seven electromagnetic (EM) conductors identified so far by the downhole EM (DHEM) surveys in the recently completed deep stratigraphic holes along the Cathedrals Belt
· The target EM plate is modelled with conductivity of 25,000 Siemens and at a depth of 260m downhole – the deepest conductor drilled to date at the Cathedrals Belt
Laboratory assays have been received for the comprehensive soil survey completed at the Fish Hook Prospect. The ground at Fish Hook is covered by up to 10m of aeolian sands with no outcrop of ultramafic rocks that would otherwise be used to target initial exploration for nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation.
The soil survey has identified a large geochemical anomaly, coincident in nickel, copper and chromium, that forms in an east-west trend and is consistent with the interpreted surface position of the southern ultramafic unit at Fish Hook.
Importantly, this unit is interpreted to be located along the eastern extension of the mineralised trend that hosts the currently known nickel-copper sulphide deposits of the Cathedrals Belt.
The nickel anomaly is also coincident with linear magnetic features observed in the magnetic surveys for the Fish Hook area and which are interpreted to represent ultramafic stratigraphy. A MLEM survey will now be completed over the prospective areas of the Fish Hook Prospect to search for any conductors that may represent nickel-copper sulphides.
This survey will also be completed at a number of other unexplored or underexplored areas of the Cathedrals Belt, where there is potential for new EM targets to be identified.
John Prineas, St George Mining’s Executive Chairman, said: “Our systematic exploration programmes continue to successfully scope out the scale of the large mineral system at the Cathedrals Belt.
“The soil survey results at Fish Hook are very encouraging because they have identified a new anomalous trend 5km east of the known nickel-copper mineralisation at the Cathedrals Belt. This is an area that we believe is prospective for a greenfields discovery.
“We are also pleased to be rolling out a new moving loop EM survey at Fish Hook and other unexplored areas of the Cathedrals Belt where there is strong potential to generate more EM targets for drill testing.
“The seismic survey is another exciting initiative with the potential to deliver an exploration breakthrough that could assist us to better understand the controls and distribution of the high-grade mineralisation along the Belt.”
