Aston Minerals confirms nickel mineralisation at Bardwell prospect within Edleston gold project

Perth-based explorer Aston Minerals (ASX: ASO) has confirmed nickel mineralisation to the end of a hole drilled at the Bardwell prospect within its Edleston gold project in Canada.

The hole – which sits within the Boomerang nickel-cobalt target and was drilled to a depth of 522 metres – intersected 245m of disseminated to blebby and semi-massive nickel sulphide mineralisation from 277m.

Significant results were 282.5m at 0.43% nickel and 0.014% cobalt ending in mineralisation, starting from 67.5m and including 163.5m at 0.52% nickel and 0.017% cobalt; and 144m at 0.38% nickel and 0.014% cobalt ending in mineralisation, starting from 174m and including 53.5m at 0.49% nickel and 0.017% cobalt.

Aston said it was the first hole collared from the northwest side of Bardwell and confirms nickel sulphide mineralisation along more than 150m of strike.

A second diamond rig has commenced drilling 150m to the southwest of the hole, with the aim of defining mineralisation along 300m of strike within a total prospective strike of 1000m.

A third rig is being mobilised to site to continue systematic drilling to the northeast at 100m spacing.

Nickel sulphides

Managing director Dale Ginn said Bardwell continues to deliver nickel sulphides across considerably broad intervals.

“Finding further semi-massive sulphide mineralisation is strongly encouraging, particularly as we are only in the infancy of understanding the controls on mineralisation,” he said.

“The Bardwell discovery was made within the first series of holes and our newly-permitted drill locations will allow us to systematically define and extend the prospect, while looking for other potential zones along the substantial Boomerang target.”

More conductors

Mr Ginn said the company will conduct downhole electromagnetic work with the aim of determining if more substantial off-hole conductors could represent massive nickel sulphide targets in addition to the extensive wide disseminated mineralisation intersected to date.

“It is important to remember that the 6.5km-long Boomerang nickel sulphide intrusion target is entirely undercover while we have hit 730m of nickel sulphide mineralisation 3.5km to the north of Bardwell, only really scratching the surface in terms of the potential of this system,” he said.

“The 93% liberation of nickel announced last week indicates we are dealing with a very high proportion of nickel associated with sulphides, which is substantially higher than that of peer deposits.”

Abitibi location

The Edleston project is located within the Abitibi greenstone belt along the Cadillac Larder fault zone, which is responsible for the production of over 75 million ounces gold.

It was discovered in 2012 through direct targeting of induced polarisation (IP) chargeability anomalies beneath shallow transported cover sequences.

Aston acquired Edleston in mid-2020 and is the first company in almost 10 years to have carried out exploration over the acreage.