Seeking High-Grade Nickel In Western Australia
Huntsman Exploration Inc. (TSXV:HMAN) is preparing to commence exploration and drilling activities at its Canegrass Nickel project in Western Australia.
The company has completed drill pad preparation has been completed with the drill rig anticipated to arrive on site and operations for the 18-hole drill programme to commence this week.
The company is also preparing to commence a Moving Loop Electromagnetic (MLEM) survey at the Canegrass nickel project on portions of the property where previous air and ground based EM data was limited.
GEM Geophysics has been contracted to perform the work, expected to commence in the near future.
President and CEO, Peter Dickie, said the proposed work is designed to detect massive sulphide accumulations proximal to the Shepherds Discordant Zone (SDZ) and at depth. Given that there are no sedimentary horizons within the area and that all conductors detected and drilled have been mineralised, any bedrock conductor that is detected will be considered highly prospective. The MLEM programme will concentrate on areas A-B west of the shear zone, with additional work on areas C and D to follow.
“We continue to see a very high degree of interest in the upcoming drilling at Canegrass as we work to expand on the great successes of the 2018 programme,” Mr Dickie said.
“It’s worth noting that, during our prior drill programme, we had 100% mineralisation hit rate when targeting survey anomalies. For that reason, concurrent with the drilling of our remaining, untested anomalies, we are initiating a new survey that will increase our knowledge of key, additional areas of the property.
“We have always believed in the long-term prospects for nickel and other battery metals at Canegrass, and our work this year will be instrumental in helping to increase shareholder value.”
The upcoming programme will include a planned initial 18 holes (3,160 m) of Reverse Circulation (RC) and Diamond (Core) drilling, which will follow up on 2018 successes and begin to test new, high priority areas.
The new programme is designed to drill untested conductors identified in surface geophysics and to continue assessing the extent of the Ni-Cu (Co) mineralisation intersected in the previous campaign, including targeting the off-hole DHEM anomalies.
2018 drilling highlights include:
- BBRC001 (Winx) 14m @ 1.17% Ni, 0.88% Cu, 0.05% Co, 463ppb Pd and 375ppb Pt from 65m, including 1m @ 2.70% Ni, 0.23% Cu, 0.12% Co, 751ppb Pd and 723 ppb Pt.
- BBDD001 (Sunline) 0.57m @ 3.07 % Ni, 0.62% Cu and 0.24% Co from 144.1m.
- BBDD002 (Tulloch) 14.25m @ 0.69% Ni, 0.82% Cu and 0.05% Co from 243.2, including 4.9m @ 1.33% Ni, 1.26% Cu and 0.10% Co.
All 2018 drill holes returned anomalous values of Ni, Cu, Co and were open along strike and at depth. A limited number of holes in the 2018 program were also assayed for PGE’s, with results noted above.
The company is exploring the potential to re-assay historic core in an effort to determine potential for PGE’s in additional areas. Downhole electromagnetic (DHEM) testing identified anomalies in several holes, strongly suggesting mineralisation is more extensive than intersected, which will be tested in the upcoming drill programme.
