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Western Mines hits nickel, copper, PGE at WA project

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Nickel was spotted in cores from Western Mines’ recent drilling campaign at its flagship project in WA’s eastern Goldfields.
Camera IconNickel was spotted in cores from Western Mines’ recent drilling campaign at its flagship project in WA’s eastern Goldfields. Credit: File

Assay results have confirmed Western Mines Group’s initial observations of nickel-copper-platinum group elements, or “PGE” mineralisation at its flagship Mulga Tank project in WA’s eastern Goldfields.

The West Perth-based explorer of gold and battery metals recently conducted a 10-hole 3990m diamond drilling campaign at Mulga Tank that aimed to evaluate targets defined through a previously run electromagnetic survey.

Management says it is pleased its initial observations of nickel-copper-PGE mineralisation have been confirmed by the results.

Significant anomalous results included 0.9m at 1.06 per cent nickel, 0.06 per cent copper and 0.05g/t platinum and palladium from 281.6m, including 0.3m at 1.57 per cent nickel, 0.13 per cent copper and 0.12g/t platinum and palladium from 281.9m.

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The results cover a 20m interval down a drill hole from 270m to 290m in the so-called Panhandle area of the Mulga Tank Ultramafic Complex.

Assay results from nine more samples covering a 9m interval at the basal contact of the hole are still pending.

The company says because portions of the core containing larger veinlets from the intersection were not assayed but removed for thin section and sulphide characterisation, the results may under-report concentrations.

The latest hole was drilled to a depth of 366m and intersected about 136m of komatiite affinity ortho-mesocumulate dunite containing multiple thin nickel-copper sulphide veinlets.

Seven remobilised nickel-copper sulphides veins were seen down the hole between 276m to 284m depth. Similar to the single vein seen in earlier holes, the sulphide veins were predominantly formed of pentlandite, chalcopyrite and sphalerite.

The results returned 0.25m at 3.8 per cent nickel, 0.7 per cent copper and 0.7grams per tonne PGE.

Initial investigation suggests these nickel-copper veins are likely remobilised massive sulphide and have now been seen in two holes approximately 360m apart.

The nearby untested NW2 Conductor in the centre of the Panhandle channel has been upgraded as a follow-up target for a second drill program.

Western Mines Managing Director, Caedmon Marriott

Mulga Tank is about 185km east north-east of Kalgoorlie.

It’s a frontier exploration play for nickel-copper and PGE that Western Mines believes has the potential to become a company-maker.

Proof that Western Mines likes what it sees at Mulga Tank came with a recent expansion of the company’s tenure when it acquired an adjacent land package from Duketon Mining.

The latest addition added about 37km of strike and a majority of the Minigwal Greenstone Belt that Western Mines believes is under-explored and boosted its tenements more than threefold to 395 square kilometres.

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

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