Terrain Minerals has launched into an eagerly awaited reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign early at its Lort River copper-nickel project in Western Australia’s renowned Albany-Fraser Belt.
The campaign will target two high-priority Nova-Bollinger-like sulphide conductors, hot on the heels of promising ground-based electromagnetic (EM) survey results completed last month.
Lort River sits just 50 kilometres northwest of Esperance and offers Terrain a compelling geological analogue to Albany-Fraser belt neighbours IGO’s Nova-Bollinger deposit, one of Australia’s premier nickel-copper discoveries of the 21st century.
Terrain’s newly defined targets, positioned on the western edge of a distinctive eye-shaped aeromagnetic feature, represent the culmination of months of meticulous geophysical analysis and strategic planning.
The company says its RC drilling will focus on Targets 1 and 2, identified through airborne and ground-based EM surveys. The conductors are believed to host high-grade sulphide mineralisation, a hallmark of significant nickel-copper magmatic ore bodies.
Terrain says it will simultaneously run precision downhole EM surveys throughout the campaign, to pinpoint at depth conductors near the first hole at each target.
Terrain Minerals executive director Justin Virgin said: “This is an exciting time for the company and its shareholders, as drilling begins to test these exciting targets that are potentially of very high value. We strongly believe we are at the forefront in the search for the next Nova-Bollinger-style magmatic nickel-copper deposit within the Albany-Fraser Belt.”
Virgin said IGO’s success with Nova has shown the highly valuable ore bodies are not isolated occurrences but part of a broader, richly mineralised region.
IGO invested $1.8 billion in Nova-Bollinger when nickel prices were significantly lower, highlighting the immense potential of these deposits, he said.
The eye feature at Lort River has been confirmed by industry experts Southern Geoscience consultants as a probable mafic intrusion, like the host structures found at the Nova-Bollinger deposit.
Following Nova’s discovery in 2012, the Albany-Fraser Belt transformed into a hotspot for nickel exploration not too dissimilar to the gold rushes of old, but this time with a drill bit.
The broader belt spans 1200km along the southern margin of the Archean Yilgarn craton, with Terrain maintaining that recent airborne geophysical surveys demonstrate compelling evidence that the southern half of the Albany-Fraser Belt could be just as promising as the northern region where Nova sits.
IGO itself is on the record saying the magmatic processes required to form Nova-Style massive nickel-copper sulphide deposits have most likely occurred along the entire length of the Albany-Fraser Belt.
Terrain has worked closely with private landowners to secure access to the Lort River site, offering shares in the company as compensation.
The RC drilling campaign is scheduled to conclude by the end of January, with assay results expected in March. The company said no commentary would be provided during the campaign, with updates reserved for when all analytical results are available.
Terrain also provided an update on its diversified exploration efforts at its flagship Smokebush gold-gallium project in the State’s Mid West region.
The company’s Wildflower gold project will undergo its stage two RC drilling campaign later this month following the Lort River drilling completion.
With the commencement of drilling at Lort River, Terrain is entering a critical phase of its exploration journey. The advanced geophysical characteristics and known geological setting of the Nova-Bollinger deposit bodes well for its priority sulphide targets outside Esperance, which would seem to possess all the right ingredients for a potential discovery.
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By Andrew Todd
