Taipan Discovery Of Nickel, Copper And Cobalt
Blackstone Minerals Limited (ASX:BSX) has made a new Massive Sulphide Vein (MSV) discovery at its flagship Ta Khoa Nickel-Cu-PGE project in Vietnam.
Taipan Discovery Zone (TDZ) hole TC21-03 returned significant assays for nickel, copper, cobalt and platinum group elements (PGEs) across 35.25m of continuous mineralisation.
Highlights of hole TC21-03: 35.25m @ 0.90% Ni, 0.60% Cu, 0.05% Co & 0.50g/t PGE1 from 18.35m, incl. 20.40m @ 1.35% Ni, 0.80% Cu, 0.07% Co & 0.72g/t PGE1 from 27.00m.
Managing Director, Scott Williamson, said the company has also obtained promising results at the King Snake target. Following several visual occurrences of high grade MSV as well as initial confirmation of high-grade nickel, copper and PGEs further assays from King Snake have now been received.
Excellent results targeting resource extensions at King Snake confirms its potential to add to the Ccmpany’s MSV mining inventory and supports the restart of the existing 450ktpa concentrator. Significant results from King Snake include:
- KS20-03 5.55m @ 1.35% Ni, 0.45% Cu, 0.05% Co & 1.28g/t PGE1 from 204.00m, incl. 1.19m @ 3.56% Ni, 0.98% Cu, 0.13% Co & 3.10g/t PGE1 from 205.38m
- KS21-04 10.45m @ 0.32% Ni, 0.22% Cu, 0.02% Co & 0.33g/t PGE1 from 194.00m, incl. 0.63m @ 3.77% Ni, 2.11% Cu, 0.15% Co & 2.33g/t PGE1 from 202.80m
- KS21-06 3.13m @ 1.23% Ni, 0.75% Cu, 0.04% Co & 2.03g/t PGE1 from 184.87m, incl. 1.12m @ 2.19% Ni, 0.93% Cu, 0.07% Co & 2.72g/t PGE1 from 185.18m
Meanwhile, infill drilling has been ongoing at the Ban Chang MSV prospect to support resource estimations and mining studies that will be incorporated into the Upstream Business Unit Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS). Assay results for the Ban Chang MSV prospect have been received and significant intercepts include:
- BC21-09 18.28m @ 0.44% Ni, 0.41% Cu, 0.03% Co & 0.31g/t PGE1 from 64.72m, incl. 5.65m @ 1.07% Ni, 0.53% Cu, 0.06% Co & 0.51g/t PGE1 from 68.75m
- BC21-10 15.30m @ 0.72% Ni, 0.45% Cu, 0.04% Co & 0.36g/t PGE1 from 42.30m, incl. 5.01m @ 1.67% Ni, 1.01% Cu, 0.09% Co & 0.95g/t PGE1 from 50.62m
- BC21-11 12.55m @ 0.57% Ni, 0.42% Cu, 0.03% Co & 0.38g/t PGE1 from 43.10m, incl. 3.10m @ 1.16% Ni, 0.95% Cu, 0.06% Co & 0.67g/t PGE1 from 46.90m
- BC 21-12 19.27m @ 0.35% Ni, 0.23% Cu, 0.02% Co & 0.16g/t PGE1 from 23.73m, incl. 3.75m @ 1.02% Ni, 0.67% Cu, 0.06% Co & 0.43g/t PGE1 from 37.00m
“Ban Chang, King Snake and Ta Cuong are targeted for inclusion in the Upstream Business Unit PFS, which will incorporate restarting the existing 450ktpa concentrator on higher grade MSV feed,” Mr Williamson said.
“This will enable significant capital expenditure to be deferred for the 4-6Mtpa concentrator designed to treat our larger bulk disseminated orebodies such as Ban Phuc. We will continue to test additional MSV targets throughout the Ta Khoa district to build an inventory of high-grade feedstock for our downstream refinery business.”