NickelX moves to acquire highly prospective but poorly explored WA nickel property
NickeX managing director Matt Gauci says Cosmos South represents a “very compelling” nickel target.
West Australian base metals explorer NickelX (ASX: NKL) has signed an exclusive agreement with a private vendor to acquire the Cosmos South nickel project located on the Wiluna Greenstone Belt.
The ground is 10km south of the large Cosmos nickel operation owned by Western Areas (ASX: WSA) and 20km north of the Leinster nickel operation controlled by BHP’s (ASX:BHP) Nickel West.
NickelX says that, despite being surrounded by major nickel miners, the M36/580 licence area has undergone “very limited” exploration.
“The Cosmos South project represents one of the very few independently owned projects with the [Wiluna Greenstone Belt], where BHP and Western Areas dominate landholdings,” the company added.
In fact, the company has not found any previous exploration reports.
Most of project lies under deep transported cover
The majority of the ground is covered by alluvium draining into Lake Miranda, a 10,000-hectare sized lake (when full) located near Leinster.
A preliminary review of existing magnetics data has been interpreted as showing that ultramafic rocks hosting nickel to the north and south strike through the Cosmos South property.
The company has agreed to pay the private vendor a $25,000 exclusivity fee to negotiate a formal earn-in agreement.
NickelX is a nickel and copper exploration company targeting sulphide deposits, initially in the Albany Fraser Orogen (AFO).
It is also aiming to generate additional projects in the eastern goldfields and south west Yilgarn, all located in Western Australia.
The company owns 100% interest in its six granted exploration licenses at the Biranup project in the AFO, including numerous high priority targets at Fire Dragon, Silver Dragon, Black Dragon and Red Dragon.
Cosmos South ‘very compelling’ nickel target
NickelX managing director Matt Gauci said the company’s team has progressed quickly the Fire Dragon nickel target in the AFO and have generated a pipeline of additional nickel opportunities.
“The Cosmos South nickel project ranked highly on our target list and represents a very compelling nickel target demonstrated by geological interpretation, strong magnetics indicating ultramafic rocks and very strong and large bedrock conductors,” he said.
These have not been subjected to systematic drilling.
Yet significant exploration has been undertaken and discoveries made directly north and south of the project area, where the bedrock outcrops.
The Wiluna Greenstone Belt hosts the large Leinster nickel operations, Mt Keith, Yakabindie, Honeymoon Well and Cosmos.