Western Mines Group to drill bedrock conductors at Mulga Tank nickel-copper-PGE project
Western Mines Group has defined “numerous exciting drill targets” at its Mulga Tank nickel-copper-PGE project, with a rig and crew expected on site next week.
Western Mines Group (ASX: WMG) will use a nine-hole diamond drilling program to test a series of defined bedrock conductor targets at its flagship Mulga Tank nickel-copper-PGE (platinum group elements) project in Western Australia.
The first phase program will test the priority geophysical and geological targets identified in a recent high-powered MLEM (moving loop electromagnetic) survey.
The survey highlighted the bedrock anomalies across the the project’s large and prospective ultramafic intrusion.
Five of these were announced last month and the remainder were recently identified in the final northwest sector of the intrusion.
Combined with previous geological interpretation and nickel geochemical vectoring work, Western Mines said the conductors present as robust drill targets for the discovery of nickel sulphide mineralisation.
The company will mobilise a BlueSpec Drilling rig and crews to site next week.
Follow-up holes will be planned on initial pXRF (portable x-ray fluorescence) and DHEM (downhole electromagnetic) results.
Mulga Tank intrusion
Four of the holes to be drilled will target the western margin of the Mulga Tank intrusion, which is untested over a strike length of more than 2 kilometres.
They have been designed to test the upper portion of the modelled W conductor (named Mulga Monster) electromagnetic plate and beneath a historical hole which returned an intersection of 1m at 1.13% nickel and 0.49 grams per tonne palladium.
Western Mines said drill pads and sumps for most of the initial holes had been cleared and are ready to drill.
Clearing of the main camp site, construction of the core shed area and installation of water tanks has been completed in preparation for work to commence.
Project location
Mulga Tank covers approximately 395 square kilometres of the Minigwal greenstone belt near Kalgoorlie which has been historically underexplored due to the presence of shallow sand cover.
Western Mines said the project presents a “frontier” exploration opportunity and resulted in the company recently expanding its position along the majority of the belt.