Metal Hawk and JV partner, Western Areas have significantly ramped up exploration with a maiden diamond drill campaign at their Kanowna East project near Kalgoorlie intersecting 220m of nickel bearing ultramafic rocks near the well-endowed Poseidon owned Silver Swan nickel mine that boasts underground head grades of 9.5 per cent nickel. Western Areas has a 75 per cent earn in agreement by spending $7 million over five years across Metal Hawk’s Kanowna East, Emu Lake and Fraser South projects.
The earn-in and joint venture agreement is now into its second year with Western Areas surpassing the halfway mark of its first stage of exploration and thereby gaining 51 per cent ownership following $3m worth of expenditure. Metal Hawk remains free carried to a decision to mine and will retain 100 per cent of the gold rights at Kanowna East and Emu Lake.
Additionally, the company will be able to access all drill data compiled by Western Areas to aid future targeting.
Kanowna East sits approximately 10km south of the high-grade Silver Swan nickel mine and Metal Hawk says it potentially represents the southern extension of the mineralised ultramafic corridor.
Work over the last 18 months by Western Areas has led to its belief that the sparse drill testing of the 9km corridor of ultramafic rocks represents a blue sky element at the project.
An RC drill campaign was conducted at Kanowna East late last year and into January this year with a total of 39 holes drilled for 5,232m. Although only half of the assay results have returned to date the company has confirmed the presence of a channel facies ultramafic rock suite with elevated nickel and favourable nickel-chromium ratios.
The first drill hole of Western Areas' maiden diamond program showed strong promise with a 220m ultramafic hit. The campaign is aimed at obtaining a better understanding of the stratigraphy and systematically testing for nickel sulphide mineralisation.
Western Areas was awarded a cool $150,000 through the WA governments Exploration Incentive Scheme to conduct diamond drilling at Kanowna East. The funding will contribute towards completing a three-hole program that when coupled with downhole electromagnetic surveying is expected to provide a far superior understanding of the architecture of the mineralised system at play.
The co-funded drilling kicked off in February and displayed sulphides typically 0.1 per cent to 0.3 per cent by volume, from 560m to 780m downhole. The presence of sulphides in the first hole drilled that has been verified by portable XRF analysis is considered highly encouraging by the partners. Importantly, mineralisation may have continued however the drill hole was abandoned due to poor ground conditions whilst still in ultramafic rocks.
Drill planning is also underway across the other two joint venture projects at Emu Lake nearby Kanowna East and Fraser South in the Albany Fraser mobile belt to follow up a set of promising results during 2021 efforts.
Having a serious player like Western Areas with a market cap well over $1 billion with a long history of successes as a joint venture partner is a significant shot in the arm for Metal Hawk. The explorer retains 25 per cent of the nickel projects whilst holding 100 per cent of the gold rights.
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By Matt Birney
