Metal Hawk Limited provided an update on nickel exploration across its Joint Venture (JV) projects with Western Areas Limited within Western Australia's Eastern Goldfields and Albany- Fraser regions. Western Areas has an Earn-In and Joint Venture Agreement (EIJVA) with Metal Hawk whereby it has the right to earn a 75% interest in three projects ­ Kanowna East, Emu Lake and Fraser South ­ by spending $7.0 million over five years. Metal Hawk is free carried to a decision to mine and retains 100% of the gold rights at Kanowna East and Emu Lake.

The EIJVA is now into its second year with Western Areas well past the halfway mark of the Stage-1 and 51% ownership milestone of $3.0m expenditure. Since the commencement of the partnership in September 2020, exploration activity has been gaining momentum on all three early-stage nickel sulphide projects, with significant recent results from drilling at both Kanowna East and Emu Lake. The Kanowna East Project comprises two tenements positioned approximately 12km south of the Black Swan/Silver Swan nickel mine.

The project is interpreted to hold over 9km strike of prospective ultramafic stratigraphy, considered to represent the southern extension of the ultramafic corridor hosting the high-grade, high-tenor Silver Swan nickel mine. Western Areas has advised that it considers the sparsely drill-tested 9km corridor of ultramafic rocks at Kanowna East to have potential to host significant nickel sulphide mineralisation. Exploration programs completed over the first 18 months of the JV have been focused on understanding and unlocking the potential of this corridor.

Initial reverse circulation (RC) drilling commenced at Kanowna East in November 2021 and was completed in January 2022 with 39 holes drilled for a total of 5,232m. The program was designed to define and explore along the contact of the western ultramafic sequence. Preliminary logging and handheld XRF data coupled with returned assay results for approximately half of the drill program have confirmed channel facies ultramafic rocks with elevated nickel in oxide and favorable Ni/Cr ratios.

These results constitute a significant early exploration achievement at Kanowna East. While focused on unlocking the stratigraphy and nickel prospectivity of the Kanowna East project area, Western Areas is systematically testing for the presence of a large-footprint, economic nickel sulphide mineral system. In support of this strategic goal, Western Areas was awarded a grant of up to $150,000 under Round 23 of the WA Government's Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS).

The grant provides financial support for the completion of a three diamond hole program which, coupled with downhole electromagnetic surveying (DHEM), will enable testing for the presence of a large mineral system across approximately 3km of interpreted prospective ultramafic stratigraphy at Kanowna East. The EIS co-funded diamond drilling commenced in February 2022, with early encouragement received from the first hole drilled. KEDD001 intersected a 220m interval of trace fine cloud sulphides to minor blebby stringers of sulphide (typically 0.1% to 0.3% sulphide by volume) from 560m to 780m.

The presence of nickel sulphides, verified by pXRF analysis, in the first diamond hole drilled on the project is considered highly encouraging and confirms the nickel fertility of the prospect. Unfortunately, due to poor ground conditions the hole was abandoned at 793.4m while still in ultramafic rocks. The second EIS co-funded drillhole is currently underway and is targeting a depth of 750m.

Further diamond drilling, geophysical work and analysis is planned for 2022-23 to determine the nature and extent of nickel sulphides encountered in KEDD001, to definitively test the basal contact and to identify positions where larger accumulations of nickel sulphides might be encountered. The Emu Lake Project comprises two exploration licenses covering 65km 2, located approximately 50km northeast of the Kanowna East project and 35km northeast of Black Swan/Silver Swan. The southern part of the project area lies along strike and less than six kilometres from Ardea Resources Limited's Binti Binti nickel gossan deposit and the recent high-grade nickel sulphide discovery at Binti South (AELD0003: 2.72m @ 5.42% Ni from 391m).

The Emu Lake project area is significantly underexplored with the only recorded historical drilling carried out at the extreme southern margin.