Estrella Resources has extended its T5 deposit by 300m south after step-out diamond drilling hit semi-massive nickel-copper sulphides. The explorer says its hole, part of the company’s Carr Boyd project in WA’s Goldfields region, intersects 1.8m of semi-massive to globular sulphides from 929m came within a broader 21.2m mineralised zone.
Down-hole electromagnetic surveys are set to commence soon at the project.
Estrella says further step-out holes south of the dyke will encounter less disruption, as was seen within its main T5 deposit.
The Carr Boyd project is 80km north-east of Kalgoorlie and includes the company’s Broonhill and Gossan Hill targets.
The project takes in the historical Carr Boyd Rocks mine that produced about 200,000 tonnes of ore at 1.43 per cent nickel and 0.46 per cent copper in the 1970s.
The company says its next step is to move the drill rig this week to Gossan Hill to begin its maiden diamond drilling program at the site that appears to mirror the T5-Broonhill basal contact.
Estrella is also awaiting results from down-hole electromagnetic surveys and seismic interpretation at Broonhill before kicking off definition drilling.
Earlier this month the explorer recorded a 17m intersection of semi-massive to disseminated nickel-copper sulphides at Broonhill that the company says remains open along strike, is increasing in scale and a separate deposit to the T5 mineralisation 1.5km to the south.
Step-out drilling at T5 last month showed one hole recorded 26.51m of disseminated to stringer sulphides from 382.4m, 15.75m of disseminated to highly disseminated sulphides from 472.35m and 10.7m of disseminated to semi-massive sulphides from 559.6m.
Estrella Resources Managing Director, Chris Daws said: “We continue to actively explore the Carr Boyd basal contact as we know that is the most likely place to find significant accumulations of nickel and copper sulphides. It has yielded two solid discoveries so far at T5 and Broonhill.”
The Broonhill deposit was identified in October last year after the explorer intercepted 12m of nickel-copper sulphides on previously untested ground.
Gossan Hill had not been drilled before 2022 and the same systematic approach that discovered Broonhill will be applied to the area.
Estrella is also advancing its plans to become a producer after high-grade results from resource confirmation drilling at its Spargoville nickel project near Kambalda.
First assays from a hole drilled at the company’s 5A resource returned a 3.4m intersection recording 8.2 per cent nickel, 0.6 per cent copper, 0.2 per cent cobalt and 21.5 per cent sulphur from 65.16m.
The intersection contains a 2.66m section going 10.34 per cent nickel, 0.79 per cent copper, 2195 parts-per-million cobalt and 27.1 per cent sulphur from 65.64m.
The company acquired the Spargoville nickel sulphide project in late 2017 when it bought WA Nickel with planning in porgress for an open-pit cutback at the 5A project.
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