Location and Access
The Yindarlgooda Nickel Project tenement E28/2259 is located in the Hampton District of the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Shire with a total area of 7.92 km2. The project area lies wholly within the Kurnalpi (3336) 1:100,000 and Kurnalpi (SH51-10) 1:250,000 map sheets. The project is located approximately 63 km due East of Kalgoorlie and 25 km southeast of Kurnalpi in the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia. Access to the tenement from Kalgoorlie is via the Mount Monger Road then veering easterly onto the Trans Access road. Access to the north via station tracks.
Description
A historical lateritic nickel-cobalt resource was defined within the project area from 1968 exploration drilling which consisted of air core percussion, rotary and diamond drilling. The resource was estimated at 1,000,000 tonnes @ 1% Ni (Non-JORC) contained within the project tenement (approximately 10,000 tonnes of contained nickel). Anomalous values for Cobalt, copper and Chromium were also reported. Reviewing drilling assay data indicates the resource can be defined as Ni-Co-Ag-Cu-Cr-Mo. Magnetite in drill core logs was recorded in some locations up to 30% Fe, probably mostly developed by serpentinization. Although the nickel orebody is mostly laterite hosted, there is potential for VMS style mineralisation in this and other areas within the project particularly the Gundockerta Formation in the western part of the tenement.
Drill core logs shows intercepts of Nickel values to 1.5% Ni; Cobalt to 9,500 ppm Co; Copper to 400ppm Cu; and Molybdenum 7.5ppm Mo. A drill core assay just over the southern boundary of the tenement shows Chromium @ 1% Cr (within the deposit outside the tenement). Other surface geochemical assays within the deposit zone show anomalous values for Chromium to 5,100ppm Cr and Zinc.
The drilling report states in several places, assays are recorded in ppm unless otherwise indicated. If this is the case, then the Silver assays are extremely high grade with a potential resource in the billion ounces Ag, whereby grades would be similar (and higher) to the MacPhersons Resources Nimbus Silver deposit near Kalgoorlie. However, we are conservative to think the Silver values were actually recorded in ppb providing an average grade of around 1 g/t Ag within and outside the Ni resource deposit area and generally from surface. This could provide up to 4 million ounces of Silver @ 1 g/t Ag.
Using a cut-off grade of 0.5% Ni, the resource could be estimated at 5.7 million metric tonnes @ 0.60% Ni consisting of approximately 34,485 metric tonnes of contained nickel in a lateral surface area of ~82,106 m2 plus credits for contained Ag-Co-Cu-Cr-Mo.
The mineralisation of the deposit starts from surface in several locations with one of these locations showing an inferred average of 39m @ 0.60% nickel from surface (inferred as mineralisation extends beyond end of hole); +30m @ 1.5 g/t silver from surface; and 7.6m @ 0.159% cobalt from 3m.
Geology
The project lies in the west side of the north-south trending Karonie-Gindalbie sequence of ultramafic rocks, mafic and felsic volcanics and sediments. The tenement lies on the south west side of a late stage granitic batholith and straddle an ultramafic sequence which hosts the reported Yindarlgooda Gossan. A small NNE fault also passes through the western area of the tenement. Most of the volcanic rocks are andesitic to basaltic in composition and mildly metamorphosed greenstones. Most of the andesites are highly carbonated.
History
The tenement remains vastly under explored from recent exploration activities (post 1975) with values recorded for nickel, cobalt, gold, silver, copper, chromite, zinc, platinum and palladium. Previous explorers, namely Heron Resources 2008/09 noted a Nickel-Cobalt resource was drilled in the vicinity of their tenement E28/1790 (WAMEX Report A001655 Item 2724) and in fact incorrectly reported the location of the Yindarlgooda Ni-Co deposit (which was actually contained within E28/1790). This was due to the explorers failing to locate a crucial exploration report (WAMEX Report A002176 Item 2724), containing the exploration drilling assays and location of the Ni-Co deposit. We appear to be the first explorer that has located this crucial exploration drilling report.
A Nickel-Cobalt resource was defined on our project tenement. Anomalous values for other minerals (Au, Ag, Cu, Cr, Pt, Pd, and Zn) were observed by previous explorers but never followed up with further sampling or exploration drilling although geophysical interpretation and aircore drilling were recommended. Magnetite was also sampled up to 38% Fe.
Additional Information
The deposit being from surface has the potential for early stage mine development. It is possible with the laterite hosted deposit, expensive exploration drilling such as rotary air blast (RAB) could be employed to define a JORC resource. A Mining Licence (ML) could theoretically be immediately lodged as the area contains a historical deposit. There are several nickel smelters in the region, mostly around Kalgoorlie and Kambalda within 80km.