Ardea Resources Limited (Ardea or the Company) confirms a massive nickel sulphide discovery at its Kalpini Project, 70km northeast of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
Ardea's Managing Director, Andrew Penkethman, said: 'The focus of historic Emu Lake exploration has been the Binti Gossan prospect area, 1km north of Ardea's Western Ultramafic channel discovery. The Western Ultramafic is a separate and distict high-magnesium ultramafic flow that was not prioritised by past explorers, presumbaly due to an absence of surface gossans as seen at the Binti Gossan. With the recently received assay results from core hole AELD0003 confirming high grade nickel sulphides located on an intact basal dacite contact with komatiite, we now have three adjoining drill holes with nickel sulphide mineralisation on the same contact which conclusively confirms that a discovery has been made. Importantly, the interpreted 3D geometry of the AELD0003 discovery suggests the mineralisation is open in all directions for further drill exploration.
With Ardea holding 20km of fertile komatiite strike at Emu Lake, there is significant scope to extend this nickel sulphide discovery and make additional discoveries. I acknowledge the Ardea team and partners such as CSIRO and Newexco for their input which has assisted in developing the Emu Lake 'Thermal Erosion' nickel sulphide model which is a major exploration breakthrough for the Company, as it has opened up a new search space.'
Kalpini Project - Emu Lake Nickel Sulphide Prospect
Ardea's Kalpini Project covers over 121km2, with the leading nickel sulphide target, Emu Lake, located 70km northeast of the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. This strategic tenement package contains 20km strike of prospective ultramafic stratigraphy held 100% by Ardea and mostly within granted mining leases. The project is 35km east of the Black Swan Nickel Project (Silver Swan nickel mine), operated by Poseidon Nickel Ltd, within a parallel komatiite volcanic belt. The exploration model being applied by Ardea is similar to that modelled at the Silver Swan nickel sulphide mine. Silver Swan has a strike length near surface of less than 50m, but a plunge extent of over 1,000m and features very high-grade zones of massive nickel sulphide.
Defining the Emu Lake Western Ultramafic nickel sulphide discovery
Ardea drill hole AELD0001, was drilled in February 2021 to follow-up on an historic Down Hole Electromagnetic (DHEM) plate that had not been previously drill tested. This hole intersected a narrow zone of nickel sulphide (Ardea ASX release 2 March 2021). A DHEM survey completed in AELD0001 defined an off-hole conductor for drill testing. To test the strong (8,000 siemens) DHEM conductor, diamond drillhole AELD0002 was drilled and intersected a basal nickel sulphide occurrence (ASX release 10 June 2021) and returned assays of: 1.1m at 4.78% Ni, 0.16% Cu, 0.47g/t Pt, 0.20g/t Pd from 366.9m downhole consisting of semi-massive and matrix-style nickel sulphides, within a broader zone of: 4.8m at 1.44% Ni, 0.09% Cu, 0.20g/t Pt, 0.09g/t Pd from 365.9m depth.
This intersection confirmed the prospectivity of the Western Ultramafic that has received little attention in the past with most historic drilling concentrated on the Binti Gossan Main Zone 1km to the north. Although nickel sulphide has previously been intersected below the outcropping Binti Gossan, it consists of mainly remobilised stringer sulphides.
To follow-up on the nickel sulphide results in AELD002, a DHEM survey was completed which defined a strong offhole conductor directly south and below the AELD002 nickel sulphide intercept, providing a drill target.
AELD003 was drilled in late November 2021 to a depth of 450m to test this DHEM plate (ASX release 3 December 2021). From a depth of 391.04m the following nickel sulphide zones were intersected: 1.23m at 8.22% Ni, 0.56% Cu, 0.46g/t Pt, 0.31g/t Pd from 391.04m downhole consisting of massive nickel sulphides, within a broader zone of: 2.72m at 5.42% Ni, 0.85% Cu, 0.58g/t Pt, 0.27g/t Pd from 391.04m downhole consisting of massive, semimassive, disseminated and matrix nickel sulphide.
The host volcanic sequence is over-turned; hence the massive sulphide being intersected in drilling above the disseminated sulphides Authorised for lodgement by the Board of Ardea Resources Limited.
Contact:
Andrew Penkethman
Tel: +61 8 6244 5136
About Ardea Resources
Ardea Resources (ASX: ARL) is an ASX-listed resources company, with a large portfolio of 100%-controlled West Australian-based projects, focussed on: Development of the Kalgoorlie Nickel Project (KNP) and its sub-set the Goongarrie Hub, a globally significant series of nickel-cobalt and Critical Mineral deposits which host the largest nickel-cobalt resource in the developed world at 830Mt at 0.71% nickel and 0.046% cobalt for 5.9Mt of contained nickel and 380kt of contained cobalt (ARL ASX announcements 15 February, 16 June 2021), located in a jurisdiction with exemplary ESG credentials.
Advanced-stage exploration at compelling nickel sulphide targets, such as Emu Lake and Critical Minerals targets within the KNP Eastern Goldfields world-class nickel-gold province, with all exploration targets complementing the KNP nickel development strategy
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