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- SI6 Metals (SI6) continues its hunt for nickel, copper, cobalt, PGE and silver mineralisation across its Botswana holdings
- The company is in the early stages of deep diamond drilling at the Maibele North prospect, looking for nickel sulphides
- The early stages of drilling have already offered some promise, with indications of an intrusive system similar to Chalice Gold Mines’ (CHN) Julimar discovery
- The company has also been conducting geophysical surveys at the Dibete and Airstrip copper-silver prospects, with signs of a number of anomalies
- The company will create a 3D model of the prospects from the survey data to assist in drill targeting
- Fully funded after a recent $2 million capital raise, SI6 will continue exploration across its Botswana holdings
- SI6 Metals is up an even 4 per cent, trading at 2.6 cents
SI6 Metals (SI6) continues its hunt for nickel, copper, cobalt, PGE and silver mineralisation across its Botswana holdings.
Drilling and geophysics
The company is in the early stages of deep diamond drilling at the Maibele North prospect, looking for nickel sulphide mineralisation.
So far the company is about one-third of the way to the target depth of 500 metres.
Rough weather put up a few roadblocks, but SI6 has now expanded the program to 24-hour, double-shift drilling to speed things up.
It’s expected drilling will be complete by Christmas.
The early stages of drilling have already offered some promise, with disseminated sulphides — including pyrrhotite and pyrite within ultramafic rocks — intersected.
Pyrrhotite is the dominant sulphide mineral in the ore zone at Maibele North and the main target in this hole is expected at around 400 metres to 500 metres downhole.
The nickel-copper-cobalt-platinum group element mineralisation is broadly similar in style to other ultramafic intrusion-related mobile belt nickel discoveries like Chalice Gold Mines’ (CHN) Julimar discovery.
The company has also been conducting geophysical surveys at the Dibete and Airstrip copper-silver prospects.
Gradient-array induced polarisation (GAIP) surveys are now almost complete, searching for deep, massive to semi-massive sulphide bodies that might be ‘feeding’ the high-grade near-surface mineralisation at the prospects.
Surveying is still ongoing, but early analysis indicates a number of anomalies at both prospects.
The company will create a 3D model of the prospects from the survey data to assist in drill targeting.
Once drill planning is complete, SI6 will mobilise a reverse circulation rig to test the targets, which show similarities to the historically significant Messina copper deposits around 230 kilometres to the southeast.
Next steps
Fully funded after a recent $2 million capital raise, SI6 will continue exploration across its Botswana holdings.
Based on the promising early signs, investors will be keenly awaiting assay results from Maibele and survey results from the silver-copper prospects.
SI6 Metals is up an even 4 per cent, trading at 2.6 cents at 1:13 pm AEDT.
