- Neometals (NMT) upgrades the mineral resource estimates for two nickel deposits at its Western Australian Mt Edwards project
- The battery metals explorer says it has increased the tonnes and grade of the mineral resource for both the McEwan and the McEwan Hangingwall deposits
- This comes as part of a major review of the Mt Edwards project that Neometals has been taking on since mid-2019
- Neometals also found some new information about the Zabel deposit, leading to a revised mineral resource estimate for this deposit, too
- Shares in Neometals are up 3.26 per cent and trading at 48 cents each at 12:51 pm AEST
Neometals (NMT) has re-interpreted and upgraded the mineral resource estimates for two nickel deposits at its Western Australian Mt Edwards project.
The battery metals explorer said today the revision has increased the tonnes and grade of the mineral resource estimates for both the McEwan and the McEwan Hangingwall deposits.
For the McEwan deposit, the mineral resource now sits at 1.13 tonnes at 1.4 per cent nickel for 15,300 tonnes of contained nickel. This is up from the previous estimate of 1.07 tonnes grading 1.3 per cent nickel for 13,380 tonnes of contained nickel.
For the McEwan Hangingwall deposit, the new mineral resource is 1.9 million tonnes grading 1.4 per cent nickel for 26,100 tonnes of contained nickel — up from 1.06 million tonnes at 1.4 per cent nickel for 14,840 tonnes of contained nickel.
This means combined, the mineral resource for the two deposits has been bolstered from just over 28,000 tonnes of contained nickel to 41,450 tonnes.
The updated mineral resource for these two deposits comes as part of a major review of the Mt Edwards project that Neometals has been taking on since mid-2019.
The company said it is planning some future reverse circulation (RC) and diamond core drilling at the McEwan and McEwan Hangingwall deposits, though it did not specify when it plans to begin this work.
Neometals said while researching the historical data for the McEwan and McEwan Hangingwall deposits, it unveiled further information on the Zabel deposit in the project area.
This led to a revised mineral resource estimate for Zabel, which now only includes nickel sulphides in fresh rock.
The new Zabel mineral resource is now estimated at 325,000 tonnes grading 2 per cent nickel for 6360 tonnes of contained nickel. This is revised from the previous mineral resource of 351,000 tonnes grading 1.9 per cent nickel for 6800 tonnes of contained nickel.
Neometals bought the Mt Edwards project in 2018 and has since been exploring the area for nickel and lithium.
The company said it has spent the last three years both targeting new discoveries at the project and reviewing and enhancing existing nickel resources. All up, Neometals holds 36 mining tenements covering over 300 sqkm across WA’s Widgiemooltha Dome region.
Shares in Neometals were up 3.26 per cent and trading at 48 cents each at 12:51 pm AEST. The company has a $259 million market cap.