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NICKEL CONFERENCE REVIEW

Nickel now charging Neometals

ith more than $110 million in the so we made a concerted effort over the
Wbank, Neometals Ltd is quite possi- last year to re-establish a validated data-
bly the most cashed-up nickel explorer on base. We’re reviewing and re-estimating
the planet. the resources and we hope to have that
Neometals entered the nickel fray last complete and reported in January.”
year, shortly before divesting its 13.8% More than 1mt of nickel has been pro-
stake in the Mt Marion lithium mine for duced from four historic mines on the Mt
$104 million. Edwards site. Current resources across
As was the case when it jumped on the project total 7.39mt @ 1.7% nickel for
lithium earlier this decade, Neometals has 123,000t.
levitated towards nickel because of the Neometals began exploring the project
metal’s importance to the growing EV and earlier this year and has since reported
energy storage thematic. a number of strong intercepts, including Chris Reed
Central to the company’s future in nickel 15.6m @ 1.24% nickel from 269m at the
is the Mt Edwards project, 80km south of 132N prospect and 11m @ 2.64% nickel resource, identifying the high-grade chan-
Kalgoorlie. Discovered in 1987, the project from 108m (including 4m @ 6.23% nickel) nels. We’ve got a clear growth strategy to
has received little attention over the past at the Zabel deposit. build the value not only in our other assets,
decade. Upon obtaining the nickel rights to the but particularly here at Mt Edwards.”
As such, Neometals managing director Munda project (previously it only held the Last month, Neometals also signed
Chris Reed is referring to the project as its lithium rights) the company struck 8.2m @ separate MoUs with China’s IMUMR and
“Back to the Future” storyline. 2.5% nickel, including 2.3m @ 6.11%, from Germany’s SMS Group to respectively
“No one has seen this project since diamond drilling. develop the Barrambie vanadium-titanium
ConsMin [Consolidated Minerals Ltd] went “We are not nickel miners, but we are project and to accelerate commerciali-
private, there’s been no exploration here good at building value and realising value,” sation of its lithium-ion battery recycling
since 2008 until we acquired this in 2018,” Reed said. technology.
Reed said. “The good news is we’ve got drill rigs – Michael Washbourne
“In that time obviously you lose people, out there every quarter bashing holes into
knowledge, reports, the data deteriorates, this thing, improving the confidence in the

Chasing sulphides in Quebec

hase Mining Corporation Ltd has structural interpretation of historic drilling feldspar porphyry intrusion on the massive
Claunched into a new drilling campaign data. sulphides.
at its Alotta and Lorraine base metals pro- Chase has been working up its knowl- Some of the best intercepts from the drill-
jects in Quebec, Canada, having achieved edge of the high-grade Alotta prospect and ing were 9.2m @ 2.59% nickel, 2.79% cop-
everything it set out to test over the past 12 historic Lorraine nickel-copper-gold mine per, 3.37 g/t PGE and 0.11% cobalt, from
months. since completing its acquisition of Zeus 85.2m and 11.28m @ 2.17% nickel, 2.15%
Following the Australian Nickel Confer- Minerals in October 2018. copper, 2.94 g/t PGE and 0.11% cobalt from
ence, Chase was set to drill a priority shal- Alotta was the first cab off the rank, but as 61.15m.
low downhole EM anomaly at Alotta and Chase technical director Martin Kavanagh “Alotta, given its grade, is certainly a
two further targets at Lorraine. explained, the company was essentially standout in the district and it’s justified that
Additional drilling was also planned for drilling blind. we continue to drill there and look for depth
Alotta aimed at extending the known min- “The deposit was first drilled in 2000, but extensions as well as lateral extensions
eralisation, based on recent geological and most of the core was lost – essentially all of mineralisation. We want to find multiple
lost – and we had no idea about the lenses,” Kavanagh said.
style of mineralisation, other than really Lorraine was mined from surface during
some of the drill logs,” he said. the 1960s, producing 3,000t nickel, 6,000t
“So, we drilled eight holes and had copper, 14,000oz gold and 86,000oz silver
immediate success in intersecting over a five-year stretch.
massive sulphides. Twelve months Chase plans to deploy modern-day ex-
on we’re back to drilling at the Alotta ploration techniques to target Lorraine’s
project and that drilling programme will high-grade massive sulphide zones.
begin in the next day or so.” “We will look to evaluate the base metal
A key aim of the maiden drilling was potential of that southern district at Lorraine
to gather information on the likely re- and we’re looking to introduce a JV partner
lationship between the host gabbro for the gold,” Kavanagh said.
unit and the extent of the reported
mobilisation of the massive sulphide, – Michael Washbourne
Martin Kavanagh as well as the impact of the late-stage

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