Auroch Minerals Limited announced drilling has commenced at its high-grade Nepean Nickel Project (Nepean), located 25km south of Coolgardie, in Western Australia. The project is operated under the Company's 80:20 JV agreement with Goldfellas Pty Ltd. (Goldfellas). Drilling will target a series of untested highly prospective aeromagnetic targets to the north and south of the mine. These targets align with the Nepean mine stratigraphy and are thought to represent a serpentinised core or high MgO unit of the komatiitic unit. The targets extend for over 10km of strike and each one has the potential to host significant massive nickel sulphide mineralisation. The drill- holes at these exploration targets have been planned to intersect the ultramafic-basalt contact and to define channel geometry, fertility and the presence of any nickel sulphides. The Nepean Nickel Project contains the historic high-grade Nepean nickel sulphide mine, which was the second producing nickel mine in Australia, producing 1,108,457t of ore between 1970 and 1987 for 32,202t of nickel metal at an average recovered grade of 2.99% Ni. 1 An initial eight drill-holes of the 3,500m programme will also test shallow near-mine mineralisation located approximately 200m south of the historic mining operation (see Figure 1). These holes will look to define the extents of the mineralisation identified by historic high-grade intercepts which include1: 3m @ 11.78% Ni from 37m (NP084470-2), 3m @ 9.93% Ni from 49m (NP084480-1), 4m @ 6.63% Ni from 46m (NP084470-1) and 6m @ 2.82% Ni from 53m (NP084490-1).