Auroch Minerals Intercepts More Saints Nickel
THE DRILL SERGEANT: Auroch Minerals (ASX: AOU) released assay results from the first six drill-holes from the first drilling program to be carried out at the company’s recently-acquired Saints nickel project, located near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
Auroch Minerals said the results from semi-massive to massive sulphide mineralisation intersected in several of the diamond drillholes returned extremely high-grade nickel, particularly at the Saint Patricks target area.
The best of these came from hole SNDD006 that returned high-grade results of:
2.22 metres at 4.84 per cent nickel, 0.34 per cent copper and 0.15 per cent cobalt from 110.68m down-hole, including 0.9m at 6.01 per cent nickel, 0.31 per cent copper and 0.16 per cent cobalt.
These results followed on from recently announced high-grade results achieved in drill-hole SNDD005 of:
1.77m at 6.72 per cent nickel, 0.27 per cent copper and 0.13 per cent cobalt from 227.31m down-hole, including 0.50m at 9.98 per cent nickel, 0.24 per cent copper and 0.2 per cent cobalt.
The company reported that drill-hole SNDD003 targeted a DHEM target to the north of the existing nickel sulphide mineralisation at Saint Patricks and intersected:
1.87m at 1.09 per cent nickel, 0.08 per cent copper and 0.04 per cent cobalt from 92m down-hole, including 0.47m at 2.74 per cent nickel, 0.26 per cent copper and 0.08 per cent cobalt.
This result added approximately 30m to the strike of known nickel sulphide mineralisation at Saint Patricks, and remains open to the north.
Drill-hole SNDD002 also targeted a DHEM plate down-plunge of the existing nickel sulphide mineralisation at the Western Contact and intersected:
3.31m at 1.05 per cent nickel, 0.06 per cent copper and 0.03 per cent cobalt from 219.9m down-hole, including 1.7m at 1.48 per cent nickel, 0.1 per cent copper and 0.05 per cent cobalt, approximately 40m further down-plunge from the limit of the existing nickel sulphide resource.
“We are extremely pleased with the results from the first six drill-holes of our maiden drilling program at the Saints nickel project,” Auroch Minerals managing director Aidan Platel said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.
“We have confirmed extremely high-grade nickeliferous massive sulphides over significant widths, particularly at Saint Patricks.
“We have also intersected high-grade nickel sulphide mineralisation outside of the limits of the existing nickel resource at both Saint Patricks and the Western Contact, adding to the strike of the known mineralisation.
“Importantly, the results have shown that strong DHEM conductors are consistently coincident with semi-massive and massive nickel sulphide mineralisation, thus confirming DHEM as an excellent exploration tool at Saints.
“The DHEM surveys from the first six drill-holes have all provided us with several strong conductor plates that require follow-up drill-testing.
“This initial drilling program was designed to confirm the existing nickel sulphide mineralisation and to develop new targets for a more extensive drilling program early in 2020, and the first results have shown that we have successfully achieved this.
“The drilling is ongoing with two holes (SNDD010 and SNDD011) left to complete, after which we will undertake DHEM surveys on the remaining drill-holes that were not yet surveyed.
“We also have assay results pending from drill-hole SNDD007 onwards, all of which will be announced to the market as they are received.”
Auroch has also completed down-hole electromagnetic (DHEM) surveys for the first six holes of the current drilling program with all identifying strong EM conductors.
Email: admin@aurochminerals.com