Maximus Resources believes it has hit a potential nickel sulphide-bearing komatiite channel at its new Misho discovery in Western Australia’s famed Goldfields region.
The company says results from its latest air-core drilling campaign at its Kambalda project revealed the presence of a fertile basal contact. Assays include a 26m intersection going 0.32 per cent nickel, 225 parts per million copper and 70 parts per billion platinum group metals from 2m, containing a 6m hit grading 0.48 per cent nickel, 379ppm copper and 132ppb platinum group elements from 4m.
Another drill-hole delivered 6m running 0.38 per cent nickel, 220ppm copper and 34ppb platinum group elements from 20m, including 2m giving up 0.53 per cent nickel, 267ppm copper and 32ppb platinum group elements from 22m. Results from the company’s eight-hole RC drilling campaign, which punched through 1137m in an effort to test the basal contact, are now pending after the program’s cue was put in the rack.
In an effort to get a better understanding of what lies below at the site, Maximus also embarked on a downhole electromagnetic survey, which has been wrapped up and modelling from the data has begun.
Management says the RC drill program was created to test for sulphide mineralisation beneath the elevated nickel, copper and PGE intersections following highly encouraging air-core drilling results at its newly-discovered nickel prospect.
The RC drill program targeted the apex of the known magnetic flexure, which is interpreted to be the bottom of the komatiite channel. The company believes the shallow RC drilling has encouragingly intersected several occurrences of disseminated pyrrhotite and pentlandite sulphide minerals.
It is early days in the exploration journey at Misho, but the presence of thick high magnesium komatiites with widespread occurrences of shallow disseminated sulphide mineralisation is a positive indication of the system’s fertility and potential for massive nickel sulphide accumulations nearby. Maximus Resources managing director Tim Wither
Misho is a new discovery 1km north of and along the same komatiite basal contact as Estrella Resources’ 1A nickel mine that produced 112,000 tonnes at 3.8 per cent nickel from a 100m vertical shaft. Misho nickel rights are 80 per cent owned by Maximus, with the remaining 20 per cent slice taken by Essential Metals.
The prospect is also 5km north and along the same komatiite basal contact as the Andrews Shaft nickel mine that produced 310,000 tonnes grading 2.5 per cent nickel.
BHP grabbed the headlines late last year when it predicted global demand for nickel could surge fourfold in the next 30 years, with electric vehicles (EVs) likely to almost entirely replace traditional cars.
The world’s biggest miner predicted nine of every 10 cars sold by 2040 will be EVs, helping to boost worldwide usage of key battery materials, including nickel. The market for nickel is already being transformed as electric batteries consume an ever-greater proportion of its supply.
About 85 per cent of the nickel sulphate produced at BHP’s Nickel West refinery in WA already goes to the battery sector, up from just 10 per cent in 2016.
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