Purchases Third Drill Rig To Follow Up Early Success
Blackstone Minerals Limited (ASX:BSX) is accelerating its diamond drilling campaign at the Ta Khoa Nickel-Cu-PGE project in Vietnam with the purchase of a third diamond drill rig.
Managing Director Scott Williamson said the acquisition will allow Blackstone to fast track drilling along strike and down-dip at the Ban Chang prospect
“Blackstone has made rapid progress over the past few months and we are very excited about the potential of Ban Chang,” Mr Williamson said.
“Our latest assays have confirmed a new zone of high-grade mineralisation which was previously untested at Ban Chang East.
“As we work towards completing our scoping study this quarter, we have now purchased an additional diamond drill rig to ensure we can progress the project as rapidly as possible as we systematically test our 25 massive sulphide targets.”
Blackstone is targeting a further resource update as soon as possible after completion of the maiden Ban Phuc resource this quarter. It will drill further targets later in 2020, extending the drilling programme to beyond Ban Chang and throughout the 25 massive sulphide vein (MSV) targets.
Successful deployment of Blackstone owned and operated drill rigs has to date provided the company with substantial cost savings, with approximately 60% reduction of per metre drilling costs relative to Australian industry averages.
Owning and operating three diamond drill rigs substantially increases the amount of drilling the company can undertake relative to other companies for the same expenditure.
At the Ban Chang prospect, the company currently has assays pending from hole BC20-02 which intersected 1.2m MSV from 87.0m and BC20-04 which intersected a 15.4m wide zone of sulphide vein mineralisation.
The drilling is part of an ongoing campaign to target regional MSV as Blackstone aims to build its resource inventory at Ta Khoa to supplement the Ban Phuc maiden resource, which is on track for completion in Q3, 2020.
The Ban Chang prospect is located 2.5km south-east of the processing facility and the Ban Phuc deposit adjacent to the Chim Van – Co Mong Fault Systems.
