Kuniko’s (ASX:KNI) maiden drill hole at Ertelien Nickel Project in Norway has intersected observed massive sulphide mineralization.
The company has also had success with a programme reviewing assay results of historical drill core confirm high grades of nickel, copper and cobalt over 28.1m @1.34% nickel, 1.19% copper, 0.07% cobalt.
“We are delighted that our maiden drill hole at Ertelien has delivered a great result, returning several intersections of observable massive sulphides,” CEO, Antony Beckmand, said.
“This, combined with the high-grade assay results from the historic drill core demonstrates this project and the Ringerike area is, as expected, highly prospective for further development.
“The presence of multiple battery mineral elements identified at this project, is a strong signal of future economic potential, encouraging us to aggressively pursue our target of defining a maiden JORC resource at this site. The Ertelien Nickel Project, like our Skuterud Cobalt Project, is close to Oslo with readily available infrastructure including hydroelectric based power.”
The Ertelien Ni-Cu-Co deposit is a brownfield site located on the highly prospective, wholly-owned, Ringerike Battery Minerals Project, in central-southern Norway, north-west of Oslo.
A maiden diamond drilling program at the Ertelien Nickel Project commenced during January 2023, with a planned 1,470m in 5 diamond core (DD) holes. The first drill hole, KNI_ER001 was completed 5 Feb 2023 to a depth of 473.9m. This first hole was planned as a twin hole for a previous drill hole completed by Blackstone Ventures Inc., identified as ER2006-06B, to further corroborate the potential existence of a high-grade zone of mineralization.
Massive sulphide mineralization has been observed in drill core during preliminary logging on site.
The company is also investigating the Skuterud Cobalt Project, located due west of Oslo and approximately 15 km south west of the Ringerike Battery Metals Project.
A second drilling programme has been scheduled to commence during February 2023 with 2,500m in up to 10 diamond drill holes. The drill rig for the operation has been mobilised, arriving on site with drilling at the Middagshvile target to commence during the coming days following completion of pre-start safety assessments and de-icing of roads to the drilling location.
In connection with ongoing efforts to evaluate the Ertelien Ni-Cu-Co deposit and further exploration potential on its wholly owned Ringerike Battery Metals Project, Kuniko has selected four previous diamond drillholes for assay. The drillholes were completed in 2006 and 2007 by Blackstone and selected from the significant inventory of historic drill core located at the NGU National Core Archive at Løkken Verk, Norway.
Drillholes ER2006-06B and ER2006-22 were selected from the Ertelien deposit, the former for its historically reported high grade mineralization and the latter to investigate the contact relationship between the Ertelien intrusion and the surrounding country rocks.
Drillholes LN07-01 and LN07-09 were selected from Langedalen due to the presence of notable intervals of mafic intrusions, as well as the presence of sulphide mineralization in LN07-09 which was previously observed by Kuniko’s geologists.
Notes in logging data and historical assays also indicated the presence of visible gold in a narrow quartz-calcite vein. For the Ertelien holes, the majority of available core was sampled by the Kuniko team, except for broken fault zones and large intervals of visibly barren footwall gneisses. At Langedalen, sampling was focussed on the intrusives, with a buffer zone sampled from the country rock.
In historical reports, ER2006-06B was noted as having the longest and highest-grade intercept of sulphide mineralization of all existing drillholes at the prospect. Check assays on the same reported intervals have returned a significant thickness of high-grade mineralization in ER2006-06B, as well as several smaller mineralized zones across both ER2006-06B and ER2006-22. The high-grade mineralized zone of ER2006-06B commences at 280.50m and comprises:
• 28.07m (apparent thickness) at 1.340% Ni, 1.186% Cu, 0.071% Co and 0.141g/t Au, including:
• 19.90m (apparent thickness) at 1.822% Ni, 1.642% Cu, 0.094% Co and 0.187g/t Au. (from 289.95m)
For further information please visit: https://kuniko.eu/
