Venture Minerals Limited’s (ASX: VMS) JV partner Chalice Mining has recommenced a ground EM programme at Venture’s South West Nickel-Copper-PGE Project in Western Australia.
Located within Chalice’s interpreted highly prospective West Yilgarn Nickel-Copper-PGE Province, the survey started in late April 2021 and was put on hold in June due to wet weather.
Chalice’s geophysical survey is part of the first stage of the JV earn-in focused on Venture’s Thor Target, a 20km long, “Julimar lookalike” magnetic anomaly interpreted to be mafic-ultramafic intrusive complex, in which Chalice may earn up to 70% by spending A$3.7 million on exploration over for years.
The remainder of Chalice’s EM programme (which will be fixed-loop EM surveying due to the difficult nature of the terrain) is over the area where Venture’s airborne EM survey delineated 13 highly conductive anomalies within the southern 6.5km of the “Julimar lookalike” magnetic anomaly.
Chalice will follow-up any resultant bedrock conductors from the EM program with soil geochemistry to define potential drill-ready targets.
Should Chalice elect to drill the targets it will need to spend A$1.2 million by 29 July 2022 (including A$300k by the end of November 2021) to earn 51% and a further A$2.5 million to earn 70% in Venture’s South West Nickel-Copper-PGE Project.
From the initial third of the planned EM Programme Chalice has already defined new EM anomalies of similar strength conductors to those that yielded wide and significant palladium intervals during the early drilling phase of the Julimar Ni-Cu-PGE discovery. In
addition, one of the new EM anomalies is within 10 metres of a previously drilled hole TOR04 which intersected 86 metres of disseinated sulphides with anomalous levels of PGE mineralisation. The South West Project (256 sq. km) is located ~240 km south of Perth hosted within the Balingup Gneiss Complex.
The two main prospects within the Project are Thor and Odin and both contain areas of potential Nickel-Copper-PGE prospectivity. Thor is a 20km long ‘Julimar lookalike’ (as defined by Chalice) magnetic anomaly associated with chromium rich rocks indicative of mafic-ultramafic intrusions.
A recent airborne EM survey by Venture identified 13 highly conductive anomalies within the southern 6.5km of the regional magnetic feature, of which only two have been tested by single holes in Venture’s 2018 maiden drill programme. The last hole drilled at Thor (TOR05) intersected 2.4m of Massive Sulphide averaging 0.5% Copper, 0.05% Nickel, 0.04% Cobalt and anomalous gold and palladium.
At Odin, in the only hole drilled, Nickel and Copper sulphides were intersected within a highly prospective maficultramafic unit that extends over 10 strike kilometres. This was further supported by surface sampling returning significant nickel and copper geochemical anomalies
For further information please visit: https://www.ventureminerals.com.au/
