ASX-listed explorer Metal Hawk will soon drill test a strong downhole electromagnetic, or “DHEM” conductor that may be harbouring disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation at its Torana prospect near Kalgoorlie in WA. The target is a mere 200m from a recently plunged hole that returned 10m at 0.55 per cent nickel from 130m and is part of the company’s larger Berehaven project.
Electromagnetic surveys are often used in nickel sulphide exploration to generate drill targets based on "off-hole conductor" responses.
According to the company, it has completed DHEM surveys across several recently sunk holes at the prospect, with work at the campaign’s northern-most hole picking up the robust anomaly.
The conductor represents a significant west-dipping “plate” with a high conductance of about 3000 Siemens.
Metal Hawk says the top edge of the plate is down-dip and 200m from the zone of disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation intersected in earlier drilling programs.
The company previously used moving loop electromagnetic, or “MLEM” surveys to define the conductor however because of its depth was unable to accurately model the potentially nickel-bearing feature.
Management now says its previously acquired MLEM data combined with the latest DHEM surveys has allowed it to construct a more refined plate model.
Torana is 1.5km north-west and along strike from Metal Hawk’s Commodore nickel sulphide discovery where drilling recently defined a 10m parcel going 0.20 per cent nickel, 424ppm copper and 126 parts per billion PGE from just 25m.
Metal Hawk’s Managing Director, Will Belbin said: “Our systematic drilling has shown that the ultramafics along the Commodore trend are fertile. At Torana we have intersected thick packages of high-MgO rocks under cover, where no ultramafics have previously been identified. Situated beneath a zone of disseminated nickel sulphides, this new DHEM conductor presents as an exciting target which will be tested with deeper drilling.”
Metal Hawk is putting together a follow-up RC campaign at Berehaven to investigate additional disseminated mineralisation along strike from Torana. Following its RC program, the company says it could wheel in a deeper drilling diamond rig to test the conductor at deeper levels of about 420m.
Management says plans are also afoot to complete RC and DHEM work at its nearby Commodore South prospect, where it recently struck 2m of nickel running 0.54 per cent from 171m inside a larger 13m parcel going 0.24 per cent nickel from 167m.
Whilst nickel is predominantly used in the construction of stainless steel, the commodity is tipped to have a bright future in the green energy space because of its ongoing use in the production of two of the most commonly used battery chemistries: nickel-cobalt-aluminium and nickel-manganese-cobalt.
At present about 7 per cent of nickel finds its way into batteries but the figure is tipped to grow to about 40 per cent by 2040.
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