Following a successful A$2M financing, Adavale Resources Limited (ASX: ADD) is preparing to recommence drilling at the Kabanga Jirani Nickel Project in Tanzania.
The definition of new soil anomalies from soil surveys undertaken during the wet season played a significant role in refining nickel sulphide drill targets.
Importantly, a coherent copper (Cu) in soil anomaly of over 15km strike has been defined, located coincident or adjacent to elevated nickel (Ni) and cobalt (Co) soil anomalies as well as certain mafic indices. This is considered significant given that the neighbouring Kabanga deposit owned by Lifezone and BHP contains a mineral resource of 58Mt at 2.62% Ni plus 0.35% Cu and 0.19% Co.
“The company is excited to be recommencing drilling at the commencement of the coming dry season in April 2023,” Technical Director, John Hicks, said.
“Generation of new geochemical soil data undertaken by our field staff and technical team throughout the wet season was a significant contributor to prioritization of targets. The Company looks forward to reporting results of this initial 2023 exploration programme over the coming months. Work on refining the other target areas within the Project area will continue concurrently.”
Drilling Programme Details
The additional soil samples, in conjunction with the extensive geophysical data sets built up over the past two years and the historical data acquired has generated new targets and built on existing target areas. Priority areas for testing in 2023 include the promising HEM 2 target and confirming a 15km strike extension to the north that sits within the broader Luhuma trend.
Drilling will commence with an initial Reverse Circulation (RC) and Diamond Drilling (DD) campaign of 5,000m, comprising 12 RC holes to ~150m depth and eight to 10 DD holes to ~350m depth.
Downhole Electromagnetics (DHEM) and audio magnetotelluric (AMT) surveys will also be undertaken. Access and drill pad preparations are well advanced to ensure a smooth recommencement of drilling activities.
Soil Sampling Programme Details
A total of approximately 10,000 samples were collected during the recent geochemical soil survey. The samples were collected on a 400m x 25m line spacing across specific areas within the Company’s southern tenement package. In addition, some gaps from earlier surveys were infilled during the programme.
The samples were analyzed using pXRF at the exploration field camp.
Survey Results
The Kabanga Jirani Nickel Project contains massive sulphide, disseminated sulphide and lateritic nickel across much of the tenement area. In order to ‘filter out’ the geochemical response from surficial lateritic nickel, the company assays for and measures the response of nickel, copper and cobalt as well as various mafic indices such as Cr, V, Fe etc.
The combination of geochemical responses, as well as gravity and EM anomalies, allows the company to filter out the background noise from the extensive exploration data and vector into the areas of highest interest and current priority drill targets.
The current soil geochemical programme has confirmed a coherent copper anomaly of 15km strike length, which the company considers to be important given the association of copper and cobalt with nickel mineralization at the Kabanga deposit.
This has focussed the company’s current exploration programme on the eastern side of its southern licences.
The following section describes the results of the soil geochemical surveys for the following areas:
• Luhuma Trend
• Luhuma North
• HEM 2, HEM 2 East and HEM 2 North East
• HEM4
For further information please visit: https://www.adavaleresources.com/
