Aiming To Increase Nickel Production In Vietnam
Blackstone Minerals Limited (ASXBSX) has commenced an exploration campaign at Ban Khoa within the Ta Khoa Nickel-Cu-PGE Project in Vietnam.
Ban Khoa is located 1.5km north of Ban Phuc and is centred on an ultramafic body adjacent to the Chim Van – Co Muong Fault. Blackstone’s in-house geophysics crew recently generated a 1.2km long massive sulphide target at Ban Chang within a 12km long district-scale exploration corridor which it will continue to drill test over the coming months.
Managing Director, Scott Williamson, Blackstone is targeting MSV prospects analogous to the previously mined Ban Phuc MSV, where previous owners successfully mined 975kt from an average vein width of 1.3m and average grades of 2.4% Ni & 1.0% Cu.
“We are very excited to commence exploration at Ban Khoa. Based on geological similarities and historical results, we believe it has the potential to deliver similar results to Ban Phuc,” Mr Williamson said.
“The geology at Ban Khoa is relatively well-understood given the historic drillings and we have refined our targets using modern geophysics. Exploration success here could add meaningful inventory, extend mine life and improve the economics demonstrated in our recently completed scoping study.”
“We continue to systematically test our 25 MSV prospects and with our in-house geophysics crew and Blackstone-owned drill rigs, we can cost effectively explore this globally significant nickel sulfide district using modern geophysical techniques.
“We see potential to increase annual nickel production from the Ta Khoa Nickel-Cu-PGE project through targeting high- grade MSV to complement the base load nickel sulfide feed from the Ban Phuc DSS and King Cobra discovery zone.”
The Ban Khoa prospect is centred on an ultramafic body adjacent to the Chim Van – Co Muong Fault, approximately 1.5km north of the Ban Phuc deposit.
The body is interpreted to be a 300m wide sill which has intruded into fine-grained Ban Phuc sediments. Early work conducted by Vietnamese geologists consisted of 13 trenches, a single 100m long adit and 50 drill holes, for a total of 2,338m.
Several holes penetrated a 90-150m thick, synclinally-folded and nickeliferous dunite sill, containing sub-parallel layers of nickel- enriched ultramafic. These cumulate layers are thicker and more abundant near the base of the sill, with shallow layers along the northern flank of the dunite.
The Ban Khoa dunite averaged 0.15-0.20% nickel across the entire 90-150m wide section. The best intersections were in cumulate layers encountered at the base of the dunite, with 25m grading 0.80% nickel, including 10m of 1.16% nickel as DSS in drill hole BK02. No modern drilling has been completed at Ban Khoa.
