Blind Discovery Shows Significant Potential
Blackstone Minerals Limited (ASX code: BSX)has discovered a new zone of nickel mineralisation coincident with high priority EM plates at the VDZ, located to the east of the Ban Chang prospect at its Ta Khoa Project in Vietnam.
Blackstone’s in-house geophysics crew recently generated the blind discovery of potential massive sulfide nickel targets at VDZ with a series of new shallow EM anomalies located ~200m north-east of Ban Chang East.
Managing Director, Scott Williamson, said Blackstone’s geology team followed up the new EM anomalies with a series of trenches to better understand the prospectivity of the VDZ and discovered a nickel-copper gossan with a float sample assaying 0.8% Ni & 0.5% Cu (determined by Niton portable XRF.
“We’re excited to announce the new Viper Discovery Zone at Ban Chang, a massive sulphide target initially generated by our in-house geophysics team and recently followed up by our geology team to confirm the potential of the target to host nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation,” Mr Williamson said.
“The VDZ is a blind discovery which bodes well for further blind discoveries throughout the Ta Khoa Nickel- Cu-PGE district and shows the potential of this project to host much more undiscovered nickel sulfide mineralisation.
“In addition to blind discovery potential, we have 25 massive sulfide targets, which are all associated with outcropping mineralisation at surface, and with our in-house geophysics team, we can generate additional blind discoveries that were not known to previous operators of the project.”
Blackstone’s in-house geophysics crews to unlock the extensive potential throughout the Ta Khoa Nickel- Cu-PGE district. The Viper Discovery happened soon after the Company recently moved to an aggressive drill-out phase to delineate a maiden resource at Ban Chang to supplement the ongoing studies focused on producing nickel sulfate for the lithium-ion battery industry.
The Ban Chang prospect is located 2.5km south-east of the Ban Phuc deposit and processing facility, adjacent to the Chim Van – Co Muong fault system. The prospect geology consists of a tremolitic dyke swarm within phyllites, sericite schists and quartzites of the Devonian Ban Cai Formation. The known mineralisation style is mainly veins and lenses of massive sulphide as well as disseminated sulphide (DSS) hosted within tremolite dykes. The dyke swarm is approximately 900m long and varies between 5m and 60m wide. The dykes and massive sulphide are interpreted to be hosted within a splay (and subsidiary structures) off the major regional Chim Van – Co Muong fault system.