Yes, still highly relevant, Jigish1922.That 28m @2.34% Ni hasn't...

Yes, still highly relevant, Jigish1922.

That 28m @2.34% Ni hasn't evaporated. Far from it.

In association with the last round of drilling, it has turned the Company's focus to the vermiculite. That was exactly the point expanded in last Thursday's Announcement - the Company found the really high-grade Ni-Co associated with vermiculite, and it's zeroing-in on that:


The geology encountered may provide context of the recent significant discovery of high-grade (2% to 3%) nickel bearing vermiculite that could result in transforming the project by selectively mining the high-grade vermiculite.


I think the idea is that the vermiculite essentially sucked up all the nickel ions and cobalt ions around it when it was first forming from biotite, and greatly enriched the stuff.

In drilling down, they've encountered heaps of biotite shists. And because biotite converts to vermiculite (90% of vermiculite is formed from biotite), where biotite appears in the primary zone, in the protolith, is probably where the vermiculite has formed in the oxide ore zone (if we project up from it):


The drilling program ...now leads us to believe that we can potentially identify and orientate the vermiculite zones in the northern area of the deposit. If the vermiculite forms in identifiable seams, we will be able to selectively mine the high-grade.

Further to this there is the opportunity through secondary processing to achieve a much higher quality nickel product, for which the metallurgical testwork is already underway.


Also:


The drilling through the saprock to fresh transition encountered further concentrations of vermiculite, chlorite, serpentine, silica, and garnierite deeper than the previous drilling that may have the potential to host further high-grade oxide nickel mineralisation not included in the current Resource.


I think the message is: just let 'em do the work.

And watch this space.