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Blackstone Minerals geophysics team strikes again with large new nickel-copper-PGE target at King Snake

Last updated: 11:48 24 Nov 2020 AEDT, First published: 11:40 24 Nov 2020 AEDT

Blackstone Minerals Ltd - Blackstone Minerals generates new nickel-copper-PGE target at King Snake prospect
Drilling is continuing at King Cobra Discovery zone (KCZ), Ban Chang, Ta Cuong and Ban Khoa

Blackstone Minerals Ltd (ASX:BSX) (FRA:B9S) has generated a new high-priority nickel-copper-platinum group element (PGE) target at the King Snake prospect, which has been described as the best target to date at the Ta Khoa Project in northern Vietnam.

King Snake is just 1.5 kilometres northeast of the processing facility and the flagship Ban Phuc Disseminated Sulphide (DSS) deposit where the company has delivered the King Cobra discovery.

This is also where the company recently announced a maiden indicated mineral resource of 44.3 million tonnes at 0.52% nickel for 229,000 tonnes of nickel and inferred mineral resource of 14.3 million tonnes at 0.35% nickel for 50,000 tonnes.

“Best target to date”

Blackstone Minerals managing director Scott Williamson said: “Blackstone’s in-house geophysics team has generated our best target to date at King Snake.

“King Snake is located down plunge of historic nickel-copper-PGE intercepts and we look forward to drill testing this exciting new high-grade target over the coming weeks.

“Based on geological similarities and historical results, we believe it has the potential to deliver similar results to the Ban Phuc MSV but with significant PGE credits.

“We continue to target high-grade ore for our staged capex strategy to utilise the existing 450,000 tonnes per annum concentrator in the early years of the mine life.”

The company has a market cap of approximately $110.5 million and shares today have been as much as 7.5% higher to 37 cents.

Historic drilling

Drilling at King Snake by previous owners was not targeting electromagnetic (EM) plates and Blackstone’s geophysics crew will now use EM to refine the targets at King Snake for high impact drilling over the coming months.

A total of 23 diamond drill holes for 5,187 metres have been drilled by previous owners with results including:

  • 3.04 metres at 2.03% nickel, 0.69% copper, 0.07% cobalt and 1.45 g/t PGE from 89.9 metres, including 1.74 metres at 3.30% nickel, 1.02% copper, 0.11% cobalt and 2.16 g/t PGE from 90.2 metres;
  • 1.33 metres at 1.42% nickel, 0.69% copper, 0.06% cobalt and 2.54 g/t PGE from 26 metres;
  • 0.6-metre at 2.18% nickel, 1.01% copper, 0.09% cobalt and 3.76 g/t PGE from 137.5 metres; and
  • 0.8-metre at 1.30% nickel, 0.78% copper, 0.06% cobalt and 0.93 g/t PGE from 57.2 metres.

King Snake plan view and long section showing historic drill holes

Looking forward

Blackstone’s in-house geophysics crew recently generated a 1.2-kilometre-long massive sulphide target at Ban Chang within a 12-kilometre-long district-scale exploration corridor which it will continue to drill test over the coming months.

The company is targeting MSV prospects analogous to the previously mined Ban Phuc MSV, where previous owners successfully mined 975,000 tonnes from an average vein width of 1.3 metres and average grades of 2.4% nickel and 1% copper.

A recently purchased ninth drill rig will continue to follow the geophysics crew throughout the Ta Khoa nickel sulphide district, testing high priority EM targets generated from 25 MSV prospects including Ban Chang, Ta Cuong, Ban Khoa and King Snake.

Drilling is also continuing at the King Cobra Discovery zone (KCZ), Ban Chang, Ta Cuong and Ban Khoa.

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