AusQuest Limited announced that diamond drilling has commenced at the Balladonia Copper-Nickel Project in the Fraser Range region of Western Australia (WA), which is subject to its Strategic Alliance Agreement (SAA) with a wholly-owned subsidiary of South32. A total of six diamond drill holes for approximately 1,400 metres is planned to test targets at the Tea Tree and Harms Lake prospects, with funding for this program partly provided by the Government's Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS). At the Harms Lake Ni-Cu-PGE prospect, two drill-holes will test electromagnetic (EM) targets associated with the interpreted mafic/ultramafic intrusion, while at the Tea Tree Cu-Pb-Zn prospect, four holes will test the base metal potential of the inferred banded iron formation (BIF) sequence and a strong EM conductor located at its western margin.

Drilling is expected to take approximately 3-4 weeks to complete with samples sent to Intertek Genalysis in Perth on an ongoing basis. Current indications suggest an 8-10 week turn-around time for final assays to be received. AusQuest's Managing Director, Graeme Drew, said the Company was looking forward to seeing the results of the drilling, with both targets having delivered encouraging early-stage results from the limited amount of exploration completed to date.