Northern Cobalt kicks off drilling at Wollogorang cobalt project in the NT

Northern Cobalt (ASX: N27) has officially kicked-off drilling at its Wollogorang cobalt project, as part of this year’s field season, with 37 high priority drill targets firmed up across the project, which is located in the far north-east of Australia’s Northern Territory.

The project is confirmed highly prospective for near surface “sedimentary-hosted cobalt resources” which could potentially lead to Northern Cobalt pulling together and defining a bulky cobalt resource over the coming months as exploration progresses and inferred, indicated and measured resource numbers are drawn up.

The junior cobalt explorer has begun a 15,000m air-core drilling program that will initially test 37 high priority drill targets identified from a detailed airborne magnetic survey.

To-date, Northern Cobalt has completed around 140 reverse circulation drill holes and 10 diamond core drill holes for a total of 11,856 metres at Wollogorang, but today’s news means the explorer will more than double its total exploration activity in terms of total drilled distance over the coming weeks.

Last month, Northern Cobalt published diamond drill core results from the 2017 program at Wollogorang’s main Stanton deposit indicating intersections up to 25.4m wide and cobalt grading up to 2.51%.

Notable intersections from the project were 25.4m grading 0.24% cobalt, 20.8m grading 0.31% cobalt, 13m grading 0.33% cobalt and a 1m interval which contained 2.51% cobalt.

Furthermore, the company said it expects to see a much larger airborne magnetic survey to commence “in the coming weeks” that will add additional targets to its growing inventory at Wollogorang.

Drilling for cobalt

The commenced drill program will begin by testing targets close to the existing Stanton cobalt deposit and work outwards in order of target priority.

Any targets that show signs of hosting significant cobalt mineralisation with the potential to host a cobalt resource will be targeted with resource drilling by the end of the year, the company stated.

“By using a highly mobile six-wheel drive mounted drill rig, we are able to rapidly test the cobalt potential of our drill targets. The rig should be able to test at least one target every day and with the use of our portable XRF analyser we will be able to get day-by-day results on the cobalt content of our drill holes,” said Mr Michael Schwarz, managing director of Northern Cobalt.

The explorer added that “targets identified as having the potential to host a cobalt resource will be subject to a drill out this year.”

News of Northern Cobalt’s decision to start a significant round of drilling helped the company’s shares rise 9% to A$0.295 this morning.