Bow River nickel-copper on song for Lycaon

Lycaon Resources has intersected more than 45m of 1 to 5 per cent visual nickel-copper sulphides from 330m after thrusting a second diamond drillhole into its Bow River project near Argyle in Western Australia’s South West region.

The company says the sulphides show a strong correlation with the upper limit of a gravity anomaly that is open along strike in excess of 1km. Given that the second hole is just 250m east of the first, it believes it bodes well for the existence of a deep and prolific accumulation.

Until now, no deeper historical drilling beyond 200m vertically has been undertaken in the area, but Lycaon says the success of its recent diamond drillholes to 800m has vindicated its approach. It was encouraged to probe deeper following Panoramic Resources’ success at its Savannah North deposit 60km to the south, where it quadrupled its resources with successful drilling at depth. That deposit now boasts a mineral resource of 13.88 million tonnes at 1.52 per cent nickel, 0.69 per cent copper and 0.1 per cent cobalt.

A post-drill downhole electromagnetic survey will be run on both diamond drillholes to assess whether conductors are present away from the borehole and to see if they are related to the nickel-copper mineralisation. The survey was expected to start today.

Lycaon Resources technical director Tom Langley said: “We are extremely pleased with the significant 45m wide intersection of nickel-copper sulphides in only our second drillhole at Bow River. These results to date show a strong correlation with sulphide emplacement with the upper limit of the gravity anomaly of which remains open along the >1km strike extent. We are only just scratching the surface of what could be a large nickel-copper sulphide mineral system at Bow River, which ranks as one of the best regional nickel-copper prospects in the Kimberley outside of Panoramic’s Savannah Mine.”

Once the assays are received and integrated with the electromagnetic survey and gravity data, management expects to have a more confident geologic model of the mineralisation in readiness for its next phase of drilling.

The company was the first to run a modern ground gravity survey at the site and the results revealed a substantial high-density anomaly some 1.2km west and down dip of the shallow nickel-copper mineralisation intersected in historical drilling.

There is little doubt in the fecundity of the Bow River intrusive, with abundant visual nickel-copper sulphides in the second drillhole conclusively proving its worth. That leaves a lot for Lycaon to look forward to in its next round of drilling as it works to determine the extent of both the deposit and the undrilled Lick Creek intrusive that lies nearby.

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