- Auroch Minerals (AOU) begins a major diamond drilling program at its Saints Nickel Project in Western Australia
- Roughly 3000 metres of infill drilling will be undertaken across the Saint Patricks and Saint Andrews prospects to update the current JORC 2012 mineral resource estimate
- An additional 2000 metres has been planned to test for possible strike and down-plunge extensions to the known high-grade nickel sulphide mineralisation
- Drilling will take six weeks to complete and once received, the results will be used in the Saints scoping study which is due for completion at the end of March
- Auroch is steady on the market with shares trading at 11 cents each
Auroch Minerals (AOU) has begun a major diamond drilling program at its Saints Nickel Project in Western Australia.
Roughly 3000 metres of infill drilling will be undertaken across the Saint Patricks and Saint Andrews prospects to update the current JORC 2012 mineral resource estimate (MRE) of 1.02 million tonnes at two per cent nickel for 21,400 tonnes of contained nickel.
The drilling will also aim to increase the confidence in the category from inferred to predominantly indicated.
Furthermore, two holes have been specifically designed to collect large bulk composite samples for metallurgical testwork.
An additional 2000 metres has been planned to test for possible strike and down-plunge extensions to the known high-grade nickel sulphide mineralisation, particularly below the Saint Andrews prospect.
Drilling will take six weeks to complete and once received, the results will be used in the Saints scoping study which is due for completion at the end of March.
“The infill drilling is critical to increasing the confidence in the MRE to a predominantly Indicated Resource category so that it can underpin the current Saints scoping study due to be completed at the end of March,” Managing Director Aidan Platel commented.
“The planned concurrent exploration drilling will test down-plunge from the known high-grade nickel sulphide mineralisation at the Saint Patricks and Saint Andrews prospects as the search continues for the “feeder” lava channel to this nickel-rich system and of course, the nickel sulphide mineralisation that is associated with such channels in Kambalda-style nickel deposits such as the Saints.”
Auroch was steady on the market with shares trading at 11 cents at 2:50 pm AEDT.