Albion Resources granted exploration licence for Leinster nickel-copper-gold project
Albion Resources’ new exploration licence is adjacent to BHP’s Weebo Bore nickel deposit and along strike of Auroch’s Horn discovery.
Newly-listed junior Albion Resources (ASX: ALB) has been granted an exploration licence for its prospective Leinster nickel-copper-gold project, 30 kilometres southeast of Leinster in Western Australia.
The tenement is adjacent to BHP Group’s (ASX: BHP) Weebo Bore nickel deposit and along strike from Auroch Minerals’ (ASX: AOU) recently-announced Horn discovery.
Last month, Auroch also reported that assays from drilling at its Woodwind and Percussion prospects confirmed thick intersections of disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation within fertile ultramafic rocks up to 5km along strike from Horn.
Albion’s geophysical imagery has indicated the same ultramafic host rocks of Horn and Weebo extend into Albion’s tenement.
Strong addition
Chairman Colin Locke said the new licence area would be a strong addition to the company’s portfolio.
“[We are] confident in the Leinster project’s potential because it is located adjacent to Weebo Bore and Auroch continues to report nickel-copper intercepts trending north towards our [landholding],” he said.
“This project is now a key pillar of [our strategy] as we build towards a maiden drilling program.”
World-class province
The Leinster project comprises one exploration licence over 42 square kilometres (or 14 blocks) of the East Murchison mineral field in a world-class gold-base metals province.
Historic drilling was mostly shallow (less than 100m), with nickel-gold mineralised intercepts poorly tested at depth by reverse circulation and diamond drilling.
Albion is considering an electromagnetic survey (MLTEM) or gradient array induced polarisation / resistivity survey (GAIP) for the two principal nickel targets north of the Horn trend and south of Weebo to identify potential conductors along the prospective strike of ultramafic rocks.
“The controls on gold mineralisation across the district appear to be poorly understood,” Mr Locke said.
“[We] believe the gold mineralisation is associated with late extensional structures developed in greenstones adjacent to granite domes [which we will confirm through] reviews of the regolith setting and previous surface exploration including geological, geochemical and geophysical datasets.”