Australia's junior explorers - The ASIA Miner

TEN new targets will be drilled by White Clif f
Minerals at its Lake Johnston and Lake Percy
nickel projects in Western Australia. The Maggie
Hays-style nickel sulphide targets wer e
identified by a geophysical survey carried out
by the company at Lake Johnston.
The company says there are several targets
that occur within ultramafic sequences
on or near the basal contacts with sedimentary
units at depths between 80 and 350
metres, which is the most common position
for nickel sulphides to accumulate. Diamond
drilling is scheduled to begin at the
targets, as none of them have been previously
drill tested.
Lake Johnston is about 480km east of Perth
and is made up of 16 tenements over
1416sqkm. Known mineralization across the
project area includes nickel sulphides, high
grade gold, copper rich volcanogenic sulphides
and minor base metals. The pr oject has
total widespread nickel mineralization greater
than 0.5% and extensive potash mineralization
in lake systems with natural brine solutions of
up to 0.5% potassium.
Previous drill results at the site include 8 metres
@ 0.98% nickel sulphide and 18 metr es
@ 0.43% nickel sulphide. Historical gold assays
include 1 metr es @ 8.68 grams/tonne
and 3 metres @ 1.72 grams/tonne.
White Cliffs’ managing director Todd Hibberd
says, “The additional nickel sulphide targets
generated by the recent survey are outstanding
exploration targets. The local geology for
the Maggie Hays nickel sulphide-style targets
NEWLY-listed exploration company Riedel Resources
has completed significant geological
sampling and mapping across its Western Australia
properties. The company was incorporated
in April 2010 to explore and develop gold
and base metals mineralization in Western Australia,
and acquired a portfolio of early stage
and advanced properties from ADX Energy.
The highlights of its Marymia exploration
program through the March quarter include
the confirmation of widespread multi-elemental
soil anomalies with peak values of
452ppm copper, 1280ppm nickel and
135ppm arsenic. During the pr ogram 2304
soil samples were collected and 270sqkm of
at Mt Gordon and Lake Percy is strikingly similar
to the volcanic sequence that hosts the
Maggie Hays and Emily Anne nickel deposits.
“The Lake Johnston lease package contains
extensive mafic to felsic volcanic sequences
and ultramafic units that have the
potential to host a major new nickel sulphide
discovery,” he says. The geophysical survey
conducted by the company was carried out
at the Mount Gordon prospect which is 20km
south of Norilsk’s operating Maggie Hays and
geological mapping completed.
Rock chip assays at the site have also confirmed
mineralization grades of up to 56.6
grams/tonne gold and 45.9% iron. High priority
targets have been identified at Marymia
following reinterpretation of historic drill r esults
including 5 metres @ 4.87 grams/tonne
gold from 239.24 metres and 3 metr es @
9.53 grams/tonne gold from 51 metres.
The Marymia project is in the pr ospective
Archaean and Pr oterozoic-age terranes of
Western Australia, about 180km northeast of
Meekatharra within the Mary Mia dome. The
project area is made up of two large contiguous
exploration licences which overlie the
Australia
White Cliff to drill new nickel targets
White Cliff Minerals’ prospects in Western Australia are near two nickel mines operated by Norilsk.
Emily Anne nickel mines.
White Cliff’s 70sqkm Lake Per cy project
contains 20km of strike length of potential
nickel-bearing cumulate ultramafic rocks within
two separate units. The wester n unit
hosts several nickel-copper geochemical anomalies
of 800ppm nickel and 300ppm copper,
while the central unit has not been tested
for massive sulphides or adequately drilled,
hence the significant potential for massive
sulphide mineralization.
Riedel identifies gold, copper and nickel at Marymia
Baumgarten greenstone belt.
Riedel’s Marymia is 50km northeast along
strike from Sandfire Resources’ Doolgunna
copper-gold project at DeGrussa, which has
an indicated and inferred resource of 10.67
million tonnes @5.6% copper , 1.9
grams/tonne gold and 15 grams/tonne silver.
The company is yet to test its Cheritons
gold prospect for potential nickel mineralization.
This project is about 50km southeast of
Marvel Loch in W estern Australia’s eastern
goldfields, and just 2km south of the Cheritons
Find deposit which has an estimated inferred
resource of 1.4 million tonnes @ 2.4
grams/tonne gold.
July/August 2012 | ASIA Miner | 33