Mulga Tank delivers more broad nickel hits for Western Mines

Western Mines Group says all 17 of its phase two reverse-circulation (RC) drillholes at its Mulga Tank project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields region have demonstrated broad zones of nickel sulphide – including a best run of 240m at 0.3 per cent nickel from 90m.

Management says the 5534m program confirms the higher tenor and consistency of a well-defined central zone of shallow disseminated mineralisation discovered during last year’s phase one RC drilling. The work also supports the company’s earlier interpretation of a potential high-grade resource within and possibly extending outside the area drilled during the latest program.

It also goes a long way to validating its preliminary estimated exploration target modelling that used all of the phase one drilling and ended up envisaging a possible exploration target scale of between 350 million tonnes and 2200 million tonnes, with grades in the range of 0.24 per cent to 0.35 per cent nickel.

The initial 17 holes of the Phase 2 RC program infilled around the higher-grade core area of our JORC Exploration Target model and increase confidence in this zone. Results from all 17 holes have now been received and remarkably, though certainly somewhat expected, all holes showed broad intersections of sulphide mineralisation.

Marriott said three of the last four holes returned continuous intersections of mineralisation of about 200m or more. It means nine of the 17 holes have mineralised intersections of at least 200m.

The best intercept in Western Mines’ phase two program was the 240m at 0.34 per cent nickel, which also includes 133 parts per million cobalt, 133ppm copper and 36 parts per billion platinum and palladium (PGE). Furthermore, the hole includes multiple internal zones at higher grades up to 3m at 0.61 per cent nickel, 190ppm cobalt, 311ppm copper and 0.28g/t PGE from 97m.

The phase one program drilled a much bigger area of shallow disseminated mineralisation, with the company completing a 22-hole RC drilling program through September and October last year.

The program sought to test the overall lateral extent and continuity of the shallow uppermost zone of disseminated nickel sulphides being noted in an increasing number of early holes within the outline of the main body of the Mulga Tank ultramafic complex.

The holes were spaced at about 500m-by-300m intervals and covered a 2500m-by-1000m area across the centre of the complex, with each hole assigned a nominal target depth of about 300m.

Western Mines says its modelling highlighted a high-grade core to the zone, prompting the 17 holes drilled in the second phase of work, with 18 more still to come. It says the results to date confirm the continuity of the system and have increased its understanding of the Mulga Tank complex as it narrows down the drill-spacing.

The new results will also feed into its ongoing modelling. The company says it hopes ultimately to target “a few hundred million tonnes” at better than 0.3 per cent nickel and that further drilling may be required for higher confidence levels.

Management is continuing to plunge its third deep diamond drillhole near the centre of the complex’s shallow, higher-grade disseminated zone. The hole is being drilled with the assistance of the WA Government’s exploration incentive scheme (EIS).

It will test not only the shallow zone, but will also press on to explore the deep keel and basal contact zone of the ultramafic complex, which the company believes has massive sulphide potential.

Western Mines’ Mulga Tank exploration continues to tease observers with a stream of consistent hits at respectable grades for the particular zone and style of mineralisation.

As if the drill rigs were the analogue of an artist’s brush, the company has carefully sketched the outline of the picture and is now filling in the detail. Now, it remains to be seen if the picture can turn out to be a masterpiece.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au