Ardea kicks off geophysical surveys at WA nickel play

Matt Birney
Tuesday, 3 September 2019 1:36PM

Multi-commodity development company Ardea Resources has kicked off ground-based electromagnetic, or “EM”, geophysical surveys at its exciting new Perrinvale nickel-copper sulphide project, located west of Leonora in Eastern Goldfields region of WA.

The surveys come at an interesting time, with nickel prices holding above USD$16,000 per tonne and fellow ASX-listed explorer, St George Mining, this week discovering a new zone of high-grade nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation at the Radar prospect, about 8km west of the company’s Perrinvale tenement.

More importantly, the extension of St George’s mineralisation at the so-called Cathedrals Belt passes through its Fish Hook prospect, straight into Ardea’s ground, where the geophysical surveys will be undertaken.

The company has targeted several areas for moving loop EM surveys at Perrinvale, where it is aiming to identify shallow-level, chargeable conductors for near-term drill testing, which has proved so successful for St George further to the west.

Ardea CEO Andrew Penkethman said: “Ardea has been assessing the nickel sulphide potential of their large strategic land holding in Western Australia and defined a number of compelling exploration targets. A ground EM survey has just commenced at the Perrinvale project and we are excited by the potential to define conductors that represent concealed nickel sulphides.”

The company said it would also commence reverse circulation drilling over a historic, untested down-hole EM anomaly at its Emu Lake target, located about 70km northeast of Kalgoorlie later this week.

The EM target lies at the contact of sulphide-rich volcanics and an ultramafic unit, whose geological characteristics compare favourably with the Silver Swan nickel sulphide mine, situated only 30km to the west southwest.

Mr Penkethman added: “At Emu Lake, previous explorers have already defined a conductor in a setting interpreted to be similar to the Silver Swan nickel sulphide mine. Drilling of this untested target is expected to commence later this week.”

“I look forward to receiving the results from these greenfields exploration programs and continuing to assess Ardea’s quality project portfolio.”

Separately this week, the company updated the mineral resources at its Lewis Ponds volcanogenic-hosted massive sulphide deposit near Orange, NSW, to 20.2 million tonnes grading 0.5g/t gold, 33.3g/t silver, 1.5% zinc, 0.7% lead and 0.1% copper.

Metallurgical studies have shown that the Lewis Ponds’ ores can be treated by conventional flotation processes, which produce a gold-silver-lead-copper concentrate and a separate zinc concentrate that meet industry specifications for sale.

The combined base metal and precious metal mineralisation at the deposit is currently open in all directions according to Ardea management and is part of a much larger mineral camp that extends some 9km to the southeast, which is dotted with extensive artisanal gold, copper and base metal workings.

Regarding the mineral resource update for Lewis Ponds, Mr Penkethman commented: “The Lewis Ponds polymetallic mineral system is regionally significant and shares similarities with other well-known and significant Lachlan Fold Belt bulk tonnage projects.”

“This project is being vended into Godolphin Resources Limited, Ardea’s planned IPO of its NSW gold and base metal assets with Godolphin expected to expand upon the considerable resource already defined at Lewis Ponds as mineralisation is open in every direction.”

“There has been minimal historical gold exploration across what is an excellent gold structure with multiple workings that hosts Lewis Ponds and the 2.3 million ounce McPhillamys gold deposit 23km southeast along the structure”.

https://thewest.com.au/business/public-companies/ardea-kicks-off-geophysical-surveys-at-wa-nickel-play-c-433116