Western Australia-focused exploration company, Aldoro Resources has delivered yet another sulphide intercept from drilling at its flagship Narndee nickel, copper and platinum group element project some 400 kilometres north-east of Perth. The thick 35.95 metre interval of disseminated magmatic sulphides, including 2.95m of massive to semi-massive sulphides, marks the seventh hole of seven to have intercepted sulphide mineralisation at the VC1 prospect.
Assays from the first two holes of the ongoing 10,000m campaign at Narndee have returned some promising results with the first hole at VC1 striking 1.65m at 0.93 per cent nickel, 0.15 per cent copper, 0.07 per cent cobalt and 0.22 parts per million palladium from 212.75m.
The second hole at VC1 also delivered significant mineralisation with a 3.8m intercept at 0.78 per cent nickel, 0.46 per cent copper, 0.06 per cent cobalt and 0.26 ppm palladium from 146.4m.
The company says the sulphide intercepts confirm VC1 as a significant discovery and highlight the potential of the Narndee tenure to host further sulphide mineralisation.
The 100 per cent owned Narndee covers more than 220 square kilometres of greenstone stratigraphy belonging to the highly prospective Narndee Intrusion.
Aldoro’s primary targets are a series of mafic-ultramafic contacts found across the at Narndee tenure which potentially could represent trap sites for magmatic sulphides. These sulphides can produce similar deposits to Chalice Mining’s revered Julimar nickel-platinum group element discovery near Perth.
Aldoro’s discovery comes on the back of a recent fixed loop electromagnetic, or “EM”, survey targeting the interpreted mafic-ultramafic contacts at the tenure. The initial survey delivered two targets, VC1 and VC11, along strike from several outcropping base metal gossans which the company believes could be indicative of deeper sulphide mineralisation.
Subsequent EM surveys revealed another two targets at the tenure, VC3 and East1, located only 3km away from VC1.
The company reports that the first hole at VC3 has now also been drilled.
Curiously, Aldoro says the hole was extended to 654.9m depth after intersecting magmatic sulphides below the original target at 380m depth.
Portable XRF analysis of blebby and disseminated magmatic sulphides observed at deeper levels of the hole has returned rich nickel and copper results, according to the company. Aldoro says that initial indications confirm the VC3 area to be prospective for nickel, copper and platinum group element mineralisation, particularly at depth.
It is now eyeing out further geophysical surveys to detect additional deeper targets between VC1 and VC3.
Aldoro also plans to conduct EM surveys across other parts of the Narndee tenure where prospective stratigraphy has been identified.
The rigs continue to smash out the metres with the next hole of the campaign set to test an area to the east of a recent intercept at VC1 that returned the best sulphide accumulations to date, according to the company.
The rig will then tackle the VC11 target which reportedly shows lithological and geophysical similarities to VC1, located some 6km away.
With the price of nickel trading near seven-year highs at about US$19,000 per tonne and copper at more than US$9,000 per tonne, Aldoro could be in for a big end to the year if the sulphide hits from Narndee keep flowing in.
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