THE WEST AUSTRALIAN
Ardea lured by shallow nickel potential at Kalpini project
Michael PhilippsSPONSORED
Tue, 2 May 2023 5:37PM
Ardea Resources has hit a significant shallow nickel sulphide anomaly from drilling at its Kalpini project, just 1km from a discovery hole that pointed to the prospectivity of its Binti target near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia’s Goldfields region.
The anomaly was highlighted from the company’s recent air-core program at its Binti target with a 14m hit at 0.52 per cent nickel, 231 parts per million copper and 129 parts per billion platinum and palladium, including 4m going 0.62 per cent nickel, 310ppm copper and 177ppb platinum and palladium.
View attachment 5279284Air-core drilling has revealed a significant nickel anomaly at Ardea Resources’ Kalpini project.
The explorer’s latest discovery is within shouting distance of its Binti South prospect that was discovered from a diamond drilling campaign that yielded results including 2.72m at 5.42 per cent nickel with 0.85 per cent copper from 391m.
In October, Ardea completed 24 air-core drill holes across 1077m at its Emu Lake prospect in a program that aimed to infill previous nickel laterite drilling and as a first-pass assessment of nickel sulphide potential along the western boundary of the Emu Lake mining leases.
Whilst the Company focus is on completing the Goongarrie Hub PFS, the Ardea Team acknowledge that the Kalpini Hub nickel sulphide opportunity should continue to be advanced. Ardea is in the fortunate position of having a pipeline of compelling Battery and Critical Minerals targets and will undertake further exploration to realise additional value at Kalpini.
Ardea Resources managing director and chief executive officer Andrew Penkethman said.
The Emu Lake and Binti prospects form part of the company’s wider Kalpini nickel sulphide project, about 70km from Kalgoorlie where it holds a strike length of about 20km.
A recent technical assessment of Kalpini indicates that nickel sulphide mineralisation in the Western Komatiite Belt occurs in ultramafic flows. Ardea says regional technical targeting has identified 12 nickel sulphide exploration targets in the 20km strike area. Exploration campaigns are being planned and will include RC drill testing below the nickel sulphide-related anomalism highlighted in the recent air-core program.
The company is also working on a prefeasibility study aimed at producing nickel and cobalt products for the lithium-ion battery sector, using material sourced from the Goongarrie component of its Kalgoorlie nickel project resource of 830 million tonnes going 0.71 per cent nickel and 0.05 per cent cobalt.
Last year, Ardea declared that the Goongarrie Hub component of the project housed a mineral resource estimate of 561 million tonnes at 0.68 per cent nickel and 0.044 per cent cobalt. It also contains a high-grade component of 78.3 million tonnes going 1.00 per cent nickel and 0.069 per cent cobalt for 784,000 tonnes of nickel and 54,300 tonnes of cobalt contained.
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