Regency Mines, the mining exploration and mineral investment company with interests in copper and nickel in Western Australia, Queensland, and Papua New Guinea, announced that it was cutting back the size of its drilling campaign on the Mambare lateritic nickel-cobalt project in Oro Province, Papua New Guinea in light of weaker nickel prices and poor market sentiment towards exploration companies.
Seven drill rigs are currently drilling, with 262 holes already complete for 3,050 metres. The program will cease at 4,000 metres however, instead of the initial plan to drill 10,000 metres.
Regency said it had decided to cut the program early to conserve cash while sentiment in the equity markets towards small cap exploration companies is low.
"The successful completion of this modified drill programme is expected within two weeks and represents a landmark in the development of the Company and its PNG project. The decision to terminate at this point is both to conserve the Company's cash in a poor market environment where nickel prices have fallen steeply and liquidity factors have affected sentiment towards small exploration companies, and, in accordance with the advice received from external consultants, to allow for the laboratory test work on the core samples and other analysis to be completed before further drilling," the company stated.