Aston Minerals makes successful return with nickel sulphide hits at Boomerang

Aston Minerals (ASX: ASO) has achieved significant early success with new infill and exploration drilling at its Boomerang nickel deposit at the Edleston project in the Timmins area of Ontario, Canada.

The company returned to Edleston earlier this month to recommence an extensional drilling campaign testing the B2 zone within the Boomerang nickel-cobalt target.

Managing director, Russell Bradford, said drilling has achieved instant success with visual confirmation of sulphides intersected in all 3 holes drilled to date.

“The mineralised intersections identified in the most recent drilling across B2 confirms the step out drilling exercise is successfully increasing the scale of sulphide mineralisation at the Edleston project,” Mr Bradford said.

“The aim of the drilling at B2 zone is to extend the mineralisation along strike and at depth relative to the existing resource – so far we are delighted to report that it’s confirming what we expected.”

Testing previous high-grade hit

The initial 3 holes at B2 are targeting an area north-west of the previously drilled high-grade hole DDED22-105 which intersected 0.33% nickel over 85.5m including 1.37% nickel over 2m before ending in mineralisation.

This was the most northerly hole included in Aston’s maiden 1 billion tonne nickel-cobalt resource released in February 2023 and drilling is looking to further define upper and lower extensions of DDED22-105.

After completing its examination of that area, Aston will turn its attention to the south-east on B2 before moving down to the Hook and infill drilling at the Bardwell Prospect.

“As well as providing results for a resource upgrade at Boomerang, core collected from this drill campaign will also be used to continue development of our metallurgical process flowsheet in preparation for the next phase of development at Edleston,” Mr Bradford added.

Aggressive drilling program underway

The Edleston project currently hosts a maiden nickel-cobalt resource of 1.044 billion tonnes across the Boomerang target and a 1.5Moz maiden gold resource at Edleston and Sirola.

This current drilling program is seeking to increase the measured and indicated category of the nickel resource as well as the size of the global resource, while also looking to improve the resource grade as the company looks to extend the high-grade zones which were identified in a previous 28,000m nickel drilling program.

The current expansive nickel diamond drilling program will be conducted on a 24-hour workplan, through the northern winter to the end of Q1 2024.

The program includes 4,300 metres of B2 resource definition drilling and mineral extension and 1,000 metres of Bardwell Zone short hole drilling to understand minability and reserve conversion for pit design.

Approximately 4,100 metres of depth extension drilling will also be undertaken at the Bardwell Zone to test continuity of high-grade zones.

Metallurgical sampling a focus

Aston is also focusing on sample selection for the metallurgical work process flowsheet development which will be key to putting together processing costs for the project.

All drill core will be HQ rated which will be used for multi-element assay, comminution and flotation flowsheet testwork.

This information will feed into a geo-metallurgical model which will become populated over time with various physical and chemical elements of the ore deposit and will be used to determine open pit positioning with the best ore grade.

Metallurgical program

In early August the company revealed it had contracted Quebec-based metallurgical laboratory Corem to assist with its studies going forward.

Corem has particular experience in nickel processing and extensive knowledge in metallurgical flowsheet development using modern techniques.

The company also revealed it had appointed Greg Lane as technical advisor to the metallurgical work program to assist with the flowsheet development.

A chief technical officer for Ausenco, he has worked on a number of similar styled nickel deposits within the Timmins area.

The metallurgical program will focus on the development of the comminution and flotation circuit configuration to maximise recovery and concentrate grade.