First Two Holes In Maiden Drilling Campaign On Target
Blackstone Minerals Limited (ASX:BSX)has intersected massive sulfide in two maiden drill holes at Ban Chang, part of its Ta Khoa Nickel-PGE project, Vietnam.
The two maiden drill holes were drilled more than 200m apart and along strike within a 1.2km-long massive sulfide target zone defined by high priority electromagnetic (EM) plates.
Drillhole BC20-01 intersected 1.05m MSVfrom 58.5m and 0.5m of sulfide veinletsfrom 59.5m, while BC20-02 intersected 1.2m MSVfrom 87.0m.
The drilling is part of an ongoing campaign to target regional massive sulfide veins (MSV) as Blackstone aims to build its resource inventory at Ta Khoa.
Blackstone’s second drill rig will continue to follow the in-house geophysics team throughout the Ta Khoa nickel sulfide district, testing high priority EM targets generated from 25 MSV prospects including King Snake, Ban Khoa, Ban Chang, and Ban Khang.
Managing Director, Scott Williamson, said this was a perfect start to Blackstone’s maiden drilling campaign at Ban Chang.
“It’s exciting to be targeting massive sulfide veins and achieving intersections within a few metres of the modelled EM plates – this is a great sign for the future of the Ta Khoa Nickel-PGE project,” Mr Williamson said.
“With the advantage of an in-house geophysics team, we are extremely well positioned to unlock this world-class geology and understand the full potential of our flagship asset.
“Our second drill rig will continue to drill high priority EM plates and look to delineate potential high-grade massive sulfide orebodies, akin to the successful Ban Phuc nickel mine, which was mined economically during some of the lowest nickel prices seen in the past decade. Our main drill rig continues to drill the King Cobra discovery zone at depth.”
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 Muong fault system.
Blackstone’s Ta Khoa Nickel–PGE project has a combination of large DSS nickel targets and 25 other prospects, including multiple high-grade MSV targets of the style that were mined at Ban Phuc from an average vein width of 1.3m.
The Ban Phuc Nickel mine operated for 3.5 years between 2013 and 2016, producing 20.7kt Ni, 10.1kt Cu and 0.67kt Co, before closing when the defined mineable reserves were depleted.
The high-grade Ban Phuc MSV is located less than 50m to the south of the Ban Phuc DSS deposit and remains underexplored at depths below the base of previous mining. Many other MSV targets are within potential trucking distance of the existing 450ktpa Ban Phuc processing facility that was built to international standards and has been on care and maintenance since 2016. Blackstone is evaluating near-mine MSV and other potential DSS targets to continue drill testing during the 2020 season, with the concept of identifying high-grade and further disseminated mineralisation for either an early restart of the Ban Phuc mining operation, or the potential to blend higher grade MSV mineralisation with the larger tonnage DSS mineralisation for processing.
