NICKEL explorer Western Areas Ltd has discovered what it believes is a nickel deposit that could be as big as its Flying Fox deposit, which is about 400 kilometres east of Perth at its Forrestania project. The company said that drilling 6km south of its Flying Fox mine, at a prospect it has named Spotted Quoll, had uncovered a 4.6 metre zone of primary sulphides, which produced an average grade of four per cent nickel and values of up to nine per cent nickel. Western Areas managing director Julian Hanna said the results added to its view that Forrestania was a world class nickel province “with potential to produce nickel from several mines over many years”. Western Areas’ Flying Fox mine development remains on track, the company said, with 7,000 tonnes of ore mined from the T Zero ore body during September. Meanwhile, oil and gas junior Red Fork Energy Ltd increased its 2P reserves in Oklahoma by 250 per cent. The upgrade included increasing the amount of barrels of oil it expected to produce by about 1.44 million barrels, with a gross revenue potential of $126 million. The reserve upgrade sent the company’s shares ablaze, soaring 20.5 per cent, or 12.5 cents, to 73.5 cents following the release of its upgrade. Julie-anne Sprague