- Auroch Minerals (AOU) lays plans for a maiden 3000-metre drilling program at its Nepean Nickel Project near Coolgardie in Western Australia
- Drilling is set to commence at the site next month targeting nickel sulphide mineralisation
- Auroch describes the project as “underexplored with effectively no previous drilling at depth”
- The mine is said to have produced more than one million tonnes of ore between 1970 and 1987 prior to closing that year
- Auroch Minerals shares are up 10.3 per cent and trading at 16 cents at 1:27 pm AEST
Auroch Minerals (AOU) has laid plans for a maiden 3000-metre drilling program at its Nepean Nickel Project near Coolgardie in Western Australia.
A five drill-hole campaign is set to commence at site next month in a bid to target economic nickel sulphide mineralisation below historic Nepean nickel mine workings.
The ASX-lister is picking up exploration activities at the nickel mine after they were cut short in 1987 due to low nickel prices.
Prior to that, the Nepean nickel sulphide mine is said to have produced more than one million tonnes of ore between 1970 and 1987 for over 32,000 tonnes of nickel-metal.
According to Auroch, the depth extent of the nickel sulphide mineralisation below mine workings remains “underexplored with effectively no previous drilling at depth”.
Auroch Managing Director Aidan Platel said the company knew Nepean had a lot more to give when they acquired it.
“The presence of the flat-lying pegmatite vein at the base of the old mine workings is an important factor in our drilling strategy,” he said.
“The Nepean Deeps target area is a very high-priority target area and we look forward to commencing our maiden drill programme there next month.”
Auroch Minerals shares were up 10.3 per cent and trading at 16 cents at 1:27 pm AEST.