Market punters pushed Metal Hawk’s share price through the roof after maiden reverse circulation drilling at the company’s Berehaven nickel project near Kalgoorlie hit massive sulphide nickel mineralisation. Metal Hawk’s share price touched 76c in intraday trading after it announced a two-metre intersection of massive and semi-massive nickel sulphide mineralisation from 144m. The company’s previous day’s closing share price was 18.5c.
The company is now planning to launch a diamond drilling campaign to follow up on the nickel sulphide hit.
The discovery comes on the back of three RC holes at the Commodore prospect located in the south-west area of the Berehaven tenure.
Management says portable XRF analysis of drill chips from one of the holes has confirmed the 2m intercept to host nickel mineralisation akin to Kambalda style komatiite hosted nickel deposits in the region.
Notably, the prospect lies just 5km north of the historical Blair nickel mine which churned out some 1.26 million tonnes at 2.62 per cent nickel for nearly 33,000 tonnes of contained metal between 1989 and mine closure in 2008.
The deeper RC drilling targeted anomalous end-of-hole nickel, copper and platinum group element geochemistry intersected by Metal Hawk’s shallow air-core drilling earlier this year.
The AC campaign returned a 54m hit going 0.32 per cent nickel, 279 parts per million copper, 8 parts per billion platinum and 19ppb palladium from 35m below surface, adding to other shallow nickel and copper intercepts from historical gold exploration at the prospect.
According to the company, no previous nickel sulphide exploration had been undertaken at Commodore prior to Metal Hawk’s campaigns.
Metal Hawk Managing Director, Will Belbin said:“This is a fantastic result from Metal Hawk’s first RC drilling program that has confirmed our belief in the potential for massive nickel sulphide discoveries to be made on this exciting and underexplored project. We look forward to ramping up our nickel sulphide exploration at Berehaven and plans for diamond drilling are well underway.”
The company says the Berehaven tenure, which spans for more than 95 square kilometres, plays host to several underexplored target areas. The drilling at Commodore focused on an interpreted north-northwest trending ultramafic rock sequence stretching for up to 10km at the project.
Metal Hawk now intends to conduct down hole electromagnetic surveys on each of the three holes as it looks to locate conductive zones prospective for massive sulphide mineralisation at Commodore. Results of the surveys will guide the company in pin-pointing targets for follow-up diamond drilling.
Assay results from the nickel sulphide intercept at Commodore are anticipated in the coming weeks.
With the price of nickel trading close to seven-year highs at about US$20,000 per tonne, Metal Hawk followers will no doubt be sweating on the results from its drilling at Berehaven.
And with the battery metals sector burgeoning right now and not looking like easing up anytime soon, now would be a good time to make a serious nickel discovery – particularly as there is more nickel in a lithium battery than lithium.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
