ASX listed nickel explorer St George Mining has returned a sparkling new intersection of high grade massive nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation from a step-out hole at its Investigators East prospect, located near Leonora in the north-eastern Goldfields of WA.
The new result of 3.55 metres grading 4.67% nickel, 2.27% copper, 0.2% cobalt and 2.94 grams per tonne combined platinum group elements was recorded from 116m down-hole.
The exciting new intersection extends mineralisation down-plunge and is important for St George, because the target was originally delineated using down-hole electromagnetic surveying of existing holes nearby.
The result is also several hundred metres east of recent drilling results that sit within a 1.5km east-west trending mineralised corridor that defines the Investigators mineralisation.
St George Mining Executive Chairman John Prineas said: “… methodical exploration … at Investigators, using drilling and DHEM surveys concurrently to identify potential extensions of massive nickel-copper sulphides, is delivering excellent results.”
“The DHEM surveys at Investigators have been successful in identifying further conductors down plunge from known high-grade mineralisation. This is a textbook fit to our geological model, which envisages potential for additional significant nickel-copper sulphides at depth in the down dip direction.”
“The east-west strike … at Investigators is more than 1.5km, suggesting that any extension of mineralisation to the north will substantially increase the volume of high-grade mineralisation at Investigators.”
The new results confirm that a large high grade mineralised system of massive nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation continues both down-dip and down plunge at the emerging Investigators prospect area.
The current exploration program at the prospect is largely being driven by the successful targeting of down-hole electromagnetic conductors located by down-hole surveys in the region.
The drive is to push the definition of these systems deeper and more broadly to establish a critical mass of mineralisation and determine the economic viability of future ore extraction, potentially via conventional open pit mining as a start-up operation, based on its relatively shallow depth.
Drill results from other holes completed at Investigators are still pending.
The broader Mt Alexander project is centred on the Ida fault zone, about 120km south-southwest of the highly endowed Agnew-Wiluna greenstone belt that hosts numerous world-class nickel deposits.
St George has discovered shallow, ore grade nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation at all three prospects at Mt Alexander and although massive sulphide accumulations have modest widths, the company has employed the use of DHEM surveying to great effect targeting ore grade intercepts thus far.
They say when you’re onto something that works well stick to it and St George has certainly done that with its use of down-hole geophysical surveying for drill targeting at the Mt Alexander project to date.
By Matt Birney
