Blackstone Minerals identifies more potential in portfolio after drilling at Gold Bridge

Blackstone Minerals (ASX: BSX) has found more potential in its portfolio after drilling at the Gold Bridge project in British Columbia uncovered copper-nickel-cobalt sulphides.

The company has restarted drilling at Gold Bridge, with the first hole targeting a large induced polarisation (IP) anomaly a the Jewel prospect.

This hole unearthed massive copper-nickel-cobalt mineralisation. The minerals’ presence was confirmed with a portable XRF reader.

Blackstone expects it will receive actual assays from the drill hole within six-to-10 weeks.

“Although Ta Khoa remains the company’s primary focus, in the background, Blackstone has continued to work up its exploration targets in British Columbia,” Blackstone managing director Scott Williamson said.

“The first drill hole testing a 700m-long IP chargeability anomaly at Jewel successfully encountered copper, nickel and cobalt sulfarsenides is a great proof-of-concept result for the project.”

“Initial success confirms not only the prospectivity of the Jewel IP target, but also the potential of Blackstone’s 50km British Columbia target zone to host nickel, cobalt and copper sulfarsenide deposits of the same style as the world class Bou-Azzer cobalt district in Morocco,” Mr Williamson added.

Gold Bridge project

Formerly named the Little Gem-BC cobalt project, Gold Bridge is 180km north of Vancouver in Canada.

Blackstone acquired the project in 2017 and has completed drilling, geochemical and geophysical surveys.

Gold Bridge was discovered in the 1930s and hosts three adits that were mined for cobalt.

Drilling at the project has totalled 1,268m with samples also taken from the adits.

Well-positioned to advance assets

While advancing Gold Bridge, Blackstone is focused on its strategy of developing an integrated mining, processing and refinery operation at Ta Khoa in Vietnam to produce precursor battery materials for South East Asia’s lithium-ion battery market.

Feasibility studies are underway for both the proposed mining operation at Ta Khoa and the downstream refinery.

Blackstone will have more than $60 million to fund its exploration and development plans after a $55 million placement to sophisticated and professional investors and an oversubscribed $5.3 million share purchase plan.