The hits keep coming for Estrella Resources, with drilling at its Carr Boyd nickel project continuing to intersect sulphide mineralisation. Two drill holes above the feeder zone of the T5 discovery have intersected more than 47 metres of disseminated to matrix-textured sulphides, with mineralisation including visible nickel-rich pentlandite and copper-rich chalcopyrite.
Samples are now in the lab awaiting assay.
Estrella is knee deep in phase three of its drilling campaign and is currently delineating the deeper pyroxenitic feeder zone of nickel sulphide system, up-dip from previous intercepts within the T5 conductor. The latest intervals come from two wedges off a deeper hole designed to test various levels of the sulphide system.
One wedge, or secondary hole encountered a 47.9m-wide zone of matrix, disseminated and cloud sulphides from 391.8m depth, whilst a second intersected 49.45m of similar mineralisation from 225m down-hole, about 20m above the first intercept, showing the system has strong continuity.
Estrella Resources Managing Director, Chris Daws said:“Our Phase 3 drilling at the T5 discovery area is going very well with all holes thus far hitting substantial widths of sulphide mineralisation. Our understanding of the immediate geological setting is improving rapidly allowing us to target postulated nickel and copper sulphide zones more accurately.”
“With two rigs onsite currently drilling 27/7 and a deep RC capability soon available we will not be breaking stride in our hunt for the source of the metal sulphides. The Carr Boyd project has intrigued explorers for decades and I look forward to what we uncover next.”
Estrella’s Carr Boyd nickel sulphide project is 80km north-northeast of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia’s fertile Eastern Goldfields. The company’s tenure covers the famed Carr Boyd nickel mine and its surrounds. The original discovery was made in the 1960s and was operated by Western Mining Corporation from 1973 until its closure in 1977.
A number of explorers have since tried their luck in the region, searching for both nickel and gold. However, it has been Estrella’s focused and systematic exploration style that has paid dividends and unearthed the deep-seated T5 nickel sulphide system, just 400m along strike from the original Carr Boyd deposit.
The company’s integrated use of down-hole geophysics and deep diamond drilling has already turned up a quiver of solid intercepts including 20.1m at 1.02 per cent nickel and 0.66 per copper from 368.5m and 13.9m at 1.06 per cent nickel and 0.38 per cent copper from 431.6m. Drilling is now plumbing the feeder zone to the nickel system.
The company is testing vertical extents of the nickel system at depths of more than 400m below surface and along more than 300m of strike as the T5 discovery continues to take shape.
Interestingly, mapping and modelling of the pyroxenite unit that hosts the T5 discovery shows the host stratigraphy extending along more than 3.5km of strike. The sheer size of the target contact gives the company plenty of room to grow its nickel sulphide discovery and to delineate additional targets along strike.
Estrella looks to be rapidly zeroing in on the nickel lodes at Carr Boyd and with drilling at T5 continuing to turn up thick intercepts of sulphide mineralisation, market watchers are no doubt sweating on the lab results due to filter through in coming weeks.
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