Thoughts on Geology and exploration upside.
At Avebury and at Melba the upside potential is exciting. Avebury known bodies are open at depth to both the east and west. Drilling in general has only been conducted to several hundred metres and there is no scientific reason why the ore lenses should stop at the current known depth, it is simply the depth extent of the current drilling. Mallee will be making it a priority, especially if they get closer to the higher end of the capital raising targets, to advance exploration quickly. I have been told as much in direct conversation and it is stated on page 18 of their recent ASX released project overview. There has been significant development in the understanding of the Avebury orebody over the past decade and many of the players in that process are known to Mallee. There is an important academic paper that was put out by workers connected to CODES in Tasmania (an eminent geological research organisation) and others with great reputations. If you have access to research portals, its title is “A story of olivine from the McIvor Hill complex (Tasmania, Australia): Clues to the origin of the Avebury metasomatic Ni sulfide deposit” . You can read an abstract here https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.2138/am-2016-5509/html.
This is a brief section of the abstract.
“We proposethat magmatic olivine in large ultramafic bodies provides almost infinite Ni toreplacive serpentinites and constitutes a major reservoir of disseminated Nimineralization. In the case of Ave-bury Ni was locally redistributed fromolivine in the Cambrian peridotites to mainly Fe-Ni alloys and sulfides duringserpentinization in the early Paleozoic. In the Devonian reheating andinteraction with a granitic fluid in the contact aureole of the HeemskirkGranite led to de-serpentinization and formation of metasomatic high-Mn, low-Niolivine with inclusions of serpentine and entrapped alloys, sulfides,arsenides, and magnetite, and metalliferous brines rich in “granitic” elements.Nickel released from serpentinite in this process was re-deposited near themargins of the peridotite to form the Avebury Ni orebody. Our model ofserpentinization-related release of Ni from magmatic olivine, in situprecipitation of metallic, sulfide, and arsenide Ni-minerals, and theirredistribution and recrystallization in hydrothermal conditions represents analternative to Ni remobilization from magmatic sulfides.”
In essence,what they are stating is that it would only take 1 cubic kilometre of magmaticolivine to produce the volume of nickel found to date at Avebury. I don’t know the volumetric measure of the olivine/ultramafics in the Avebury belt but it runs all the way from beyond the western coast, heads east along the Avebury arch and then bends around to the north east for tens and tens of kilometres. It is highly likely that there is further nickel concentrated in lenses as found already and Mallee hold large pieces of the most prospective ground. I think we will get relatively early news on exploration potential if they get sufficient funds to go exploring early.
The trial Harbour area and granites intruding through underlying ultramafics...plenty of potential here...Some of the historical Melba high grade dikes that have been mined to a depth of approximately 30m are detailed in a Zeehan Zinc announcement from some years ago and that report can be found at https://www.mrt.tas.gov.au/mrtdoc/tasxplor/download/07_5449/EL302002_200607_013_AppendixE.pdf.
Page 7 details some of the high grade but small volume deposits that have been mined historically and also point to the fact there may well remain a larger ore body at depth. Exploration of course so no guarantees but certainly exciting potential. Even if this opportunity was only to add a few years production, given we have an existing plant it would add high value to the project. It is also quite possible that there are further Avebury style nickel lenses out there as well. The nickel at Avebury is predominantly in the alteration at the contact between the ultramafics and the volcanoclastic turbidites. Two essentially different types of rock that create a pathway for fluids where they meet. This contact zone has could easily be replicated by the perimeter edge of the magnetic anomaly at Melba. The historic high grade deposits where all found on one edge and it’s not unreasonable to suspect that that pattern will continue around the perimeter as one alternative model.
