Lycaon Resources has set a new focus on what it believes is a “fertile nickel copper system” at its Bow River project in Western Australia’s East Kimberley region after diamond drill samples threw up visible nickel-copper sulphides.
The company says results from a third of its latest samples from two new holes showed more than 300ppm nickel, with peaks of 742ppm nickel and 744ppm copper. The latest campaign tested a more than 1km-long gravity anomaly overlapping the 4km-by-2km Bow River nickel-copper sulphide-bearing mafic intrusion, 20km south-west of the Argyle diamond mine.
It is now planning more drilling based on its findings.
Lycaon boldly stepped out 1.2km west from where previous exploration had focused on 900m-by-300m coincident soil geochemical and airborne electromagnetic (EM) anomalies with outcropping gossan and historic drill hits to a maximum depth of 180m. The drilling honed in on the deeper, more primitive part of the Bow River mafic intrusive, which is possibly related to higher-gravity density and nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation that correlates to the upper margin of the modelled gravity anomaly between 330m to 360m in depth.
However, the gravity anomaly through a 1km strike remains untested and Lycaon did note a near one-to-one strong correlation between nickel and copper drill values. It says downhole electromagnetic (DHEM) surveys of both diamond holes to respective depths of 690m and 760m recorded weak off-hole conductive anomalies.
Management will now use current mineralogical drill-core studies to assist with follow-up drill planning, although it says its focus is on areas containing historic high-grade nickel-copper-cobalt drill intersections.
Lycaon Resources technical director Tom Langley said: “The drill assays have shown a highly anomalous nickel mafic intrusion. There remains significant potential to discover nickel copper mineralisation at Bow River with a large portion of the intrusion remaining untested of the >1km gravity anomaly. Future drilling will look to focus on the historical high-grade drill hits which proved that the mafic intrusion is a fertile nickel copper system.”
Elsewhere, at the company’s Stansmore rare earths carbonatite project in the West Arunta region, Lycaon has successfully progressed land access with the Parna Ngururrpa traditional owners and a meeting with the Aboriginal Lands Trust is planned for later this month. Following heritage surveys, drilling to test a 700m-long magnetic anomaly is scheduled to kick off early next year.
The company is says it is encouraged by the continued success of WA1 Resources, some 90km to the south at that company’s tier-one Luni rare earths discovery where high-grade drill hits include 30m at 4.7 per cent niobium oxide.
Lycaon appears to have plenty to be excited about in the coming year at both its Bow River and Stansmore projects as the company stretches for a significant nickel-copper-rare earths drill intersection.
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By Rohan Halfpenny
