- Adavale Resources (ADD) is looking to bolster exploration work at its Kabanga Jirani Nickel Project in northwest Tanzania with the addition of a second drill rig
- The rig is capable of both reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drilling, and will offer the company greater flexibility in its exploration work
- Eight target areas have been identified, three of which have been prioritised for their strong gravity anomalies
- The second rig is expected to begin work immediately with the aim of testing as many targets as possible before the onset of Tanzania’s wet season
- Shares in Adavale Resources are up 3.51 per cent to 5.9 cents per share at 12:57 pm AEDT
Adavale Resources (ADD) is looking to bolster exploration work at its Kabanga Jirani Nickel Project in northwest Tanzania with the addition of a second drill rig.
The DE 810 multi-purpose rig is capable of both reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drilling operations. It will provide Adavale with the flexibility to quickly evaluate geological targets with RC drilling before following up on the necessary targets with diamond drilling.
The latter is typically more expansive and more time consuming, but has the potential to provide key structural information.
Adavale said the initial RC drilling work was scheduled to begin immediately, with the aim of testing as many targets as possible before the onset of Tanzania’s wet season. The region usually experiences two of these seasons, a more intense one — “masika” — that lasts from mid-March to May, and a lesser one — “vuli” — that lasts from November to mid-January.
These periods often have the potential to restrict — even delay completely — drilling and exploration work.
So far, Adavale has identified an initial eight target areas at Kabanga Jirani which will be tested with 12 RC drill holes. This work is anticipated to yield additional drill targets for follow-up holes.
Three of the eight areas, including the company’s new “high priority target 21”, have been prioritised for their strong gravity anomalies identified during recent surveys. These anomalies are the strongest of the 10 that have been identified across Kabanga Jirani to date.
Adavale said these anomalies were largely coincident with other high quality geochemical, EM, AMT and magnetic anomalies, and thereby provided substantial additional evidence for the potential presence of a nearby mafic-ultramafic body — the pre-requisite host rock type for nickel sulphide discoveries.
“The recent addition of gravity surveying to our targeting selection criteria brings further confidence that we will discover new, potentially mineralised mafic-ultramafic bodies in the future,” Adavale CEO Allan Ritchie said.
“Our initial diamond drill test program has been an invaluable exercise for the company and a pathfinder for generating numerous new targets, many of which can be more efficiently tested by RC techniques prior to undertaking deeper and more costly diamond drilling.”
Shares in Adavale Resources are up 3.51 per cent to 5.9 cents per share at 12:57 pm AEDT.