Ausquest Moves Ahead On Ni-Cu Project In WA

Strategic Alliance Exploration Programmes Set To Target Narryer Potential

AusQuest Limited (ASX: AQD) and South32, have agreed to move ahead with an Exploration Opportunity at the Morrisey Nickel-Copper Project – located within the Narryer Terrane ~500km north of Perth in Western Australia – under the Strategic Alliance Agreement (SAA) between the two companies.

Under the terms of the SAA, South32 has exclusive rights to the company’s projects and can earn a 70% interest in each project by spending a total of US$4.5 million on exploration, with the right to earn an additional 10% interest by completing Pre-Feasibility Studies.

At the Morrisey Project, the alliance is targeting nickel-copper-PGE discoveries similar to those found at Nova-Bollinger in the Fraser Range of WA, and more recently at Julimar, north of Perth, which highlighted the untested nickel-copper-PGE potential of the western margin of the Yilgarn Craton.

The Morrisey Project consists of one granted Exploration Licence and four Exploration Licence Applications covering a total area of ~1,200 sq. km parallel to the Yilgarn Craton boundary. It was initially secured to cover magnetic targets indicative of mafic/ultramafic host rocks in a similar tectono-stratigraphic setting to the Julimar (and possibly Nova-Bollinger) discovery.

Regional soil sampling across priority target areas supported the presence of prospective mafic/ultramafic rock types in the area as well as locating several nickel-copper soil anomalies with the potential to reflect nickel sulphide mineralisation.

A proposal to advance this Exploration Opportunity to the drilling stage has been accepted under the SAA. A Helicopter Electromagnetic (HEM) survey to locate potential massive sulphide targets within key target areas has been planned and is scheduled to commence in late May 2021.

AusQuest Managing Director Graeme Drew said the inclusion of the Morrisey Project under the Company’s SAA with South32 added further depth and momentum to its ongoing exploration programmes in Australia.

“The Morrisey Project has several compelling targets based on analogies that we are able to draw with the new Ni-Cu-PGE discovery at Julimar and the well-known nickel-copper prospectivity of the Fraser Range Belt, which forms the south-eastern margin of the Yilgarn Craton,” he said.

“Our focus will be on identifying targets for drilling as soon as we can following the completion of the upcoming HEM surveys.”