AusQuest Limited’s (ASX: AQD) Strategic Alliance partner, a wholly-owned subsidiary of South32 Limited, has accepted the new district-scale Jubilee Lake Nickel-Copper Project, located ~500km east of Kalgoorlie in WA, as a new Exploration Opportunity 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.
The Jubilee Project consists of one granted Exploration Licence and five Exploration Licence applications covering a total area of ~3,200 sq. km.
The Project is situated within a large flood basalt terrane (>4,000 sq. km), close to the south-eastern margin of the Yilgarn Craton, and is centred over the Rodona Shear which shows strong evidence as being the key feeder structure to the surrounding flood basalts.
Mafic/ultramafic intrusions that are associated with feeder structures to flood basalt terranes are considered prime targets for Ni-Cu-PGE sulphide deposits similar to those found at the giant Norilsk deposits in Russia, and more locally at Nebo-Babel (Oz Minerals), located ~300km to the north-east of Jubilee, and possibly at Nova-Bollinger (IGO), ~350km to the south-west.
Modelling of aeromagnetic data over the Jubilee Project has identified a possible chonolith-type intrusion (a horizontal cylindrical body), ~15km in length and coincident with the Rodona Shear, making it a high priority target for Ni-Cu-PGE mineralisation.
The targets occur at shallow depths (~50m to 100m below the Eucla Basin sediments) and have limited depth extent (~200m to 300m), suggesting that the prime target zone for nickel sulphide mineralisation (near the base of the inferred chonolith) is within reach of standard electromagnetic (EM) techniques.
A proposal to rapidly advance this Exploration Opportunity to the drilling stage has been accepted under the SAA. EM surveys to locate massive nickel sulphide targets within the interpreted chonolith and feeder intrusions are scheduled to start in Q2 2022.
AusQuest Managing Director Graeme Drew said the inclusion of the province-scale Jubilee Lake Project under the Company’s SAA with South32 was an exciting development, adding further depth and momentum to its ongoing exploration programs in Australia, especially for nickel and PGEs.
“The Jubilee Project has compelling targets based on geological analogies that we are able to draw with other major Ni-Cu-PGE provinces around the world,” he said.
“We have been searching for similar geological situations for some time and we are excited to have identified this significant opportunity which – with the backing of South32 – will we hope, provide more exciting news for our shareholders.
“We look forward to our programme getting started in the near future and reporting on progress as results become available,” he said.
For further information please visit: http://www.ausquest.com.au/
