Western Mines delivers 5.3Mt nickel in WA Eastern | Australian Markets

After a skinny few weeks for notable drill intercepts on the ASX, Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits digs deep into one other variety of Big Hit: Western Mines Group’s eye-watering 5.3 million tonnes of contained nickel metallic within the company’s maiden mineral useful resource estimate for its Mulga Tank project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields.

The company’s sensational maiden useful resource is certain to be simply a small half of an even larger story to return.

For good measure, we have now additionally thrown in one drill gap hit from WMG’s most up-to-date – and deepest – diamond drill gap in the centre of its Mulga Creek useful resource.

Let’s dive in.

Western Mines Group (ASX: WMG)

Mulga Tank nickel sulphide project,

Minigwal Greenstone Belt,

190km northeast of Kalgoorlie.

Hit: JORC compliant mineral useful resource estimate of 5.3 million tonnes of sulphide-hosted contained nickel metallic.

WMG delivered an eye-watering 5.3 million tonnes of sulphide-hosted nickel metallic in its maiden mineral useful resource for its flagship Mulga Tank nickel project, 190 kilometres northeast of Kalgoorlie.

The company believes the Mulga Tank useful resource might simply be amongst Australia’s greatest nickel sulphide deposits – and probably the largest – and places the project in the league of the world’s Top 10 nickel deposits.

This gorgeous, globally vital useful resource in WA’s Eastern Goldfields additionally incorporates 257,000t of cobalt, 161,000t of copper and 1.1M ounces of mixed platinum and palladium.

At a 0.20 per cent nickel cut-off, the indicated useful resource is estimated at 565Mt at 0.28 per cent nickel, 134 elements per million (ppm) cobalt, 104ppm copper and 18 elements per billion (ppb) of the mixed platinum and palladium group components (PGE).

An further inferred useful resource is estimated at 1403Mt at 0.27 per cent nickel, 129ppm cobalt, 73ppm copper and 17ppb mixed PGE.

Those numbers deliver WMG’s complete mixed indicated and inferred useful resource for Mulga Tank to only shy of 2 billion tonnes at a dizzying 1968Mt at 0.27 per cent nickel, 131ppm cobalt, 82ppm copper and 17ppb mixed platinum and palladium.

This heady outcome means Mulga Tank has 3 times more contained nickel metallic than Australia’s different big-name sulphide-hosted nickel deposits.

Other metals in the estimate embody 257,000t of cobalt and 161,000t of copper – and 1.1M ounces of mixed platinum and palladium are the cherry on high.

BHP owns Australia’s present high three nickel sulphide deposits in phrases of contained nickel metallic. The WA-based operations embody Yakabindie, which has a complete 2.06Mt useful resource, Leinster with a complete of 1.63Mt and Honeymoon Well with a complete of 1.21Mt of contained nickel.

Tuesday’s London Metal Exchange price per tonne of nickel is US$14,364 (A$23,729), US$33,700 ($A55,672) for cobalt and US$8732 (A$14,425) for copper. Platinum is at the moment price US$926 (A$1531) per ounce and palladium is US$910 (A$1504) per ounce.

Mulga Tank is within the traditional Yilgarn Craton, which incorporates some world-class examples of komatiite-hosted nickel deposits, together with the historic Kambalda, Perseverance and Mt Keith operations.

WMG listed on the ASX in 2021 and at Mulga Tank, the company has since undertaken geochemical sampling, drilled 18 diamond holes for 13,446m and 63 reverse circulation holes for slightly below 20,000m, assayed 20,330 samples and recorded more than 24,000 core analyses by transportable XRF.

That large enterprise was accompanied by downhole and transferring loop electromagnetic geophysics, ground-based gravity and airborne cell magneto-telluric surveys.

The work has been rewarded with the invention of an in depth magmatic nickel sulphide system within the Mulga Tank ultramafic advanced, which lies totally within WMG’s tenure.

Within the project space, the Archaean bedrock is obscured by up to 70m of sand cowl. The company’s tenure encloses the Mulga Tank ultramafic advanced, which has been interpreted from a main regional magnetic high and historic drilling.

The magnetic high has been proven by drill testing to be a lopolith-shaped dunite intrusion that has been extensively altered in locations.

Long, slender arcuate magnetic options radiating from the dunite are interpreted as komatiite channel flows, which the company lately confirmed in its first regional reverse circulation drill program.

The surrounding footwall of the dunite and komatiite channels consists of basalt and interbedded chert and sulphidic black shales.

In April final 12 months, WMG kicked off a third deep diamond drill gap, MTD029 (EIS3), which was co-funded by a $220,000 grant from the WA Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS).

The gap was designed to serve a number of functions. WMG wished to infill the reverse circulation drill gap sample in an space of best curiosity and to check a conductive anomaly about 1200m under floor. The company additionally wished to check close to the basal contact, which has sturdy potential to smell out a sulphide-enriched keel in the deepest half of the advanced.

The higher portion of the opening was drilled with a larger diamond core to offer an further 70 kilograms of pattern materials for initial metallurgical take a look at work of the shallower disseminated mineralisation.

This precaution proved insightful and was significantly related to the company’s maiden disseminated useful resource, which was principally outlined by the reverse circulation drill testing.

The near-vertical diamond gap – run at about 85 levels – terminated at a depth of 1722m. This was the company’s deepest diamond gap.

The gap bored out about 1600m of high magnesium dunite containing disseminated magmatic sulphides from hint to 2 per cent, which coalesce in some locations into interstitial sulphite blebs, with intercepts via nickel-rich sulphide veinlets and segregations.

The outcomes clearly show proof of an in depth magmatic nickel-sulphide system all through most of the core, which exhibits elevated nickel and sulphur coinciding with extremely anomalous copper, mixed platinum group components and a few disseminated sulphides.

That near-continuous mineralisation is outlined down the opening via varied geochemical indicators and cut-off grades, with solely minimal inclusion of unmineralised materials under mineable thicknesses.

Sensationally, the opening delivered 4 broad zones of disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation for a cumulative 1247m averaging 0.28 per cent nickel, 134ppm cobalt, 76ppm copper and 24ppb mixed platinum and palladium from 108m, with an total 1.0 sulphur to nickel ratio.

Looking at nickel alone, these zones embody 689m at 0.27 per cent nickel from 108m, 168m at 0.23 per cent nickel from 866m, 266m at 0.34 per cent nickel from 1192m and 124m at 0.32 per cent nickel from 1534m.

The outcomes additionally prolonged the uppermost, shallow, disseminated zone from its beforehand reported interim interpretation of 494m to 689m at 0.27 per cent nickel, additional amplifying the depth of the zone of probably open-pittable nickel mineralisation.

The uppermost half of this disseminated zone produced an intercept of 58m at 0.34 per cent nickel from 204m, together with 8m at 0.48 per cent nickel from 210m, together with 10m at 0.40 per cent nickel from 232m, highlighting the zone as being no slouch in the grade division.

The high-grade intercept is strengthened by a second separate run of 19m assaying 0.44 per cent nickel from 378m, together with 8m at 0.54 per cent nickel from 389m and a spotlight 1m at 1.56 per cent nickel from 395m.

A deep run of 126m assayed 0.42 per cent nickel from 1326m, together with 12m at 0.57 per cent nickel from 1326m, with a spotlight 2m working 1.09 per cent nickel from 1334m and one other 34m at 0.50 per cent nickel from 1416m.

The 1.09 per cent nickel outcome was additional spiced up with 2m at 0.3g/t mixed PGE from 1334m.

The backside runs in the opening jagged intercepts of 20m at 0.46 per cent nickel from 1550m and 13m at 0.41 per cent nickel from 1639m.

Adding to the project’s already spectacular resume, the just about 2 billion tonne Mulga Tank useful resource is derived from a shallow disseminated nickel sulphide mineralised zone in the centre of the advanced’s fundamental physique.

WMG’s maiden mineral useful resource model is constrained within the depth and lateral extent of the company’s higher-density space of drill testing within the shallow disseminated zone.

Broadly, the company’s useful resource model makes use of knowledge from within a rectangle measuring about 3km east-west by nearly 1.8km north-south in the centre of the more in depth oval magnetic signature defining the higher extent of the ultramafic physique, which measures about 4.5km by 2.9km.

This maiden useful resource might be prolonged laterally into adjoining zones, which have already been scouted utilizing a more open gap spacing.

These holes have been proven to additionally carry disseminated nickel however require additional infill and extension drill testing to deliver them up to at the very least an inferred useful resource standing.

An unlimited potential and solely thinly examined disseminated and big nickel sulphide useful resource additionally lies under the present shallow maiden disseminated useful resource block. Only restricted work has been undertaken with deep diamond holes to discover the potential of the “keel” of the intrusive for large nickel sulphides.

Other work undertaken all through the previous 12 months included an initial scout investigation of elongate arcuate our bodies emanating up to 15km northwest and north from the principle dunite physique which are interpreted as komatiitic channel flows.

This interpretation has been confirmed by the primary latest regional drilling program of 4 government-funded EIS reverse circulation holes, a fifth reverse circulation gap and 4 diamond drill holes to a most depth in one gap of 388m.

Analyses affirm extremely potential high-magnesium komatiite lithologies with fertile nickel, sulphur and chalcophile components, supported by microscope investigation of two EIS holes. The holes revealed ample seen disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation as the principle nickel mineral pentlandite, a nickel iron sulphide, with minor iron sulphides pyrrhotite and pyrite additionally noticed.

The holes additionally affirm the interpreted geology, with olivine cumulate/dunite and komatiite lithologies encountered in 4 of the holes and visual sulphide mineralisation seen in two EIS reverse circulation holes, confirming the existence of a belt-scale nickel mineralised system.

This further prospectivity for nickel sulphide mineralisation within high-magnesium komatiite flows provides an further thrilling dimension to the useful resource potential of all the assemblage of nickeliferous our bodies within WMG’s Mulga Tank project.

The potential channel our bodies might symbolize different long suites of targets extending for at the very least 15km alongside strike from the principle dunite physique.

The fundamental dunite intrusive reveals in depth intercumulus sulphide blebs, primarily of nickel sulphide mineral pentlandite, that are thought-about typical of Type-2 nickel sulphide systems, corresponding to on the Mt Keith deposit.

Drilling has additionally encountered intersections of nickel-rich large sulphide veins much less than 20 centimetres thick and immiscible sulphide globules which, mixed with the intercumulus sulphides, level to Mulga Tank being a hybrid nickel system that includes two distinct mechanisms of sulphide precipitation and gravity settling.

WMG believes this hybridism offers for vital basal accumulations of large and matrix sulphides, which considerably increase the system’s prospectivity.

WMG envisages a fashionable, massive, open pit operation to mine and course of between 30Mt and 40Mt of ore per 12 months, which might offer the company appreciable economies of scale.

Given the shallow nature of the mineralisation, modelled to a restrict of about 400m under floor, the ore would seemingly be processed onsite by typical flotation mineral beneficiation strategies to supply a saleable nickel sulphide focus.

WMG believes from its broad calculations that the Mulga Tank deposit has very cheap prospects for eventual financial extraction, which is why it has continued to discover and advance the project even during the present downturn in the nickel price cycle.

The maiden useful resource represents a vital milestone for the project and the company is planning and developing additional exploration packages for 2025.

Management believes it has assembled enough potential ore to work on for an earliest-possible begin to mining and might now concentrate on refining the present useful resource, whereas persevering with to quietly consider the potential lateral extensions and regional channel our bodies.

Given the present scale and shallow depth of the useful resource estimate and the potential to maneuver to early open pit mining of the useful resource, WMG’s short to medium-term focus shall be on defining cohesive zones of higher-grade materials within its current model.

These embody a number of zones with grades of up to 4.5 per cent nickel and 4.8 per cent copper.

The company’s diamond drilling program is ongoing to judge deeper targets for basal large nickel sulphides and to increase its understanding of the deeper large sulphide potential.

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