Resource Definition At Stricklands Also Progressing
Western Australian nickel company St George Mining Limited (ASX: SGQ) continues to make strong progress at its flagship high-grade Mt Alexander Project with drilling and exploration programmes in progress.
Both diamond drilling and RC drilling are now underway at Mt Alexander, with diamond drilling is being carried out continuously in two 12-hour shifts per day and RC drilling is conducted in one 12-hour shift per day.
A second diamond rig is scheduled to arrive at site shortly and will also operate 24/7.
Drilling activity is currently focused at the Stricklands Prospect. The resource drill-out of the shallow, high- grade nickel-copper sulphide deposit at Stricklands is being carried out with RC drilling. More than 1,500m of drilling has already been completed.
St George is also well advanced with a programme of six diamond core holes, with an average depth of 80m, at Stricklands.
Three of these metallurgical holes have already been completed with the remaining holes due to finish later this week. Samples from these drill holes will be used for metallurgical test work being carried out in Canada.
Once drilling of the Stricklands metallurgical holes is completed this week, diamond drilling of the new MT/AMT conductive targets will commence.
The initial MT/AMT surveys carried out in March 2020 included an east-west oriented survey line across the strike of the Cathedrals Belt that extended for approximately 10km from the West End Prospect in the west to the Bullets Prospect in the east.
Last month, additional MT/AMT surveys were carried out including an east-west survey line over the eastern portion of the Cathedrals Belt. The additional line extended from the Bullets Prospect in the west to the Fish Hook Prospect in the east.
The combined east-west survey line covers approximately 16km strike of the Cathedrals Belt. Detailed 3D inversion modelling of the data for the combined survey line has identified prominent conductive features across the Belt with the strongest conductive zones at the Investigators, Fairbridge/Cathedrals and Fish Hook Prospects.
St George Executive Chairman, John Prineas said the conductive area at Investigators is located down-dip of the known shallow nickel-copper sulphides at Investigators.
“This is a compelling target for the discovery of additional nickel-copper sulphides,” he added.
“Mt Alexander is a hive of activity with both diamond and RC drilling progressing smoothly,” Mr Prineas said.
“The modelling of the MT survey data continues to deliver high-quality targets for the potential discovery of nickel-copper sulphides, and we are excited to be starting the drilling of these targets this week.
“The scoping study for a mining operation at Mt Alexander is also advancing with important milestones being delivered by the RC drilling and metallurgical holes at Stricklands.”
St George has also been successful in its application for co-funding of some of the deep drilling programme at the Cathedrals Belt. The drilling grant is made by the Western Australian Government under its Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS), and provides St George with a 50% re-imbursement of direct drilling costs capped at $150,000.
