Conico has struck heavily disseminated and semi-massive sulphides in four more drill holes at the company’s 50-50 owned Mt Thirsty joint venture with Greenstone Resources less than 200m south from Galileo Mining’s newfound Callisto deposit.
Five diamond drill holes for 1650m are now complete as part of an ongoing phase I drill campaign testing for extensions to the recent palladium-platinum-gold-copper-nickel discovery 16km north-west of Norseman in WA.
The four-hole flurry follows on from an initial diamond hole that intercepted 22m of heavily disseminated sulphides drilled 400m south from Callisto.
The latest holes step out 100m to the north and south of the inaugural hole with all exploration to date showing a similar geological sequence of sulphides with levels varying from weakly through to heavily disseminated mineralisation.
A prospective horizon of at least 300m by 400m has been defined by the JV with mineralisation remaining open in all directions. Notably, the explorers’ geological analysis points to a further 2km of prospective strike captured by the project.
With assays pending, initial visual results show encouraging intercepts including a 37.1m hit of heavily disseminated sulphides from 268.6m downhole within a broader 127.3m intercept of disseminated sulphides from 178.4m downhole.
Another drill hole delivered 15.3m of heavily disseminated sulphides from 208m before continuing to intercept another 35.9m of disseminated sulphides.
The JV partners expect the return of assays from the initial hole within four weeks and results from the following four holes within 6 weeks.
The full program will be tested for palladium, platinum, gold, copper, nickel and rhodium.
Conico plans to plunge a further fifteen holes for 4200m over the next eight weeks as part of the “aggressive” phase I campaign. The drill rig has currently moved further south at a distance of 600m from Callisto and is underway with its next hole.
With the initial focus of the campaign to test for immediate extensions of the discovery to the north, the upcoming drilling will see the rig wheeled south and east as it continues its hunt.
A smaller multi-purpose drill rig will be mobilised later this week to assist with the ongoing program.
The explorer plans to quickly wheel the rig back in for a second phase pending the receipt of assays.
Mt Thirsty was considered an advanced cobalt-nickel project with a good amount of drilling, however only 3.5 per cent of the holes penetrated deeper than 100m.
As Galileo’s discovery hole struck mineralisation from a depth of 144m it is easy to see why Conico’s relatively shallow drilling did not pick up any potential mineralisation.
With the surface now significantly scratched Conico is sure to have more than a few eyes watching when it comes to opening the bag of incoming assays.
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