Azure Minerals Ltd (ASX:AZS) is on a roll with its latest nickel discovery at Andover and two new gold projects in Western Australia’s hottest gold districts.
The company continues to intersect substantial visible nickel and copper sulphide mineralisation from its resource definition drilling program on the VC-07 East nickel-copper sulphide deposit at the Andover Project (60% Azure/40% Creasy Group) in Western Australia.
In addition, Azure is also advancing its Barton Gold Project in the middle of the Kookynie Gold District and Turner River Gold Project, a 450 square kilometre gold-rich district just south of Port Hedland.
Promisingly, the company is well funded with $30 million in cash to advance its nickel and gold assets.
Azure Minerals has a busy 12 months ahead, delivering newsflow through 2021-2022.
Layered mafic-ultramafic intrusion
Andover Nickel-Copper-Cobalt Project covers 70 square kilometres of Andover mafic-ultramafic intrusive complex and exploration has demonstrated that it hosts significant nickel, copper and cobalt sulphide mineralisation.
Being a layered mafic-ultramafic intrusion, Andover has similar geological characteristics to the Fraser Range Province and the Julimar and Savannah intrusive complex.
Andover is connected with excellent local infrastructures such as airports, port access, railway, grid power, sealed highways, and support services readily available.
Andover is a fertile environment for nickel & copper sulphides.
Delivering maiden mineral resource
To date, Azure has completed 80 diamond drill holes for 36,816 metres at Andover, with 72 holes drilled at VC-07 and eight holes drilled at the VC-23 prospect.
Notably, 22 new drill holes intersected multiple intervals of massive, semi-massive, matrix and heavily disseminated nickel-copper sulphides.
Three rigs are drilling around the clock at VC-07 East, with a primary focus on completing the drill-out of the deposit this year and delivering a maiden mineral resource in 2022.
Next steps
Azure’s +40,000-metre diamond drilling program is continuing at Andover, with the VC-07 East zone developing into a significant nickel-copper sulphide deposit.
Downhole electromagnetic (DHTEM) surveying along the VC-07 mineralised corridor continues to provide targeting for additional mineralised extensions, assisting in future drill planning.
The Andover regional exploration program will focus on drill-testing other EM conductor anomalies identified on the property, for example at VC-23, VC-18, VC-41, when heritage and statutory approvals of those sites have been granted.
In addition, VTEM and FLTEM surveys are underway guiding exploration drilling at Andover.
Furthermore, key development studies are underway, which includes metallurgical test work, geotechnical & mining, community, heritage & environment and infrastructure & logistics.
Strong regional gold endowment with multiple gold deposits.
Two new gold projects
The Barton project is in the Kookynie Gold District, close to several large and growing gold deposits and adjoins Genesis (TSX:GDC) Minerals Ltd’s (ASX:GMD) new Puzzle North gold discovery.
Barton is mostly soil-covered and has undergone little historical exploration, with the best drill intersection of 7 metres at 1.26 g/t gold within 18 metres at 0.77 g/t along trend from Puzzle North.
Importantly, multiple structural targets have been identified and systematic drilling is planned for 2021.
The Turner River Gold Project comprises two unexplored Exploration Licence applications covering 450 square kilometres just south of Port Hedland.
At the closest point, Turner River is within seven kilometres of De Grey Mining Ltd’s Mallina Gold Project, which contains 2.2 million ounces of gold resources hosted in multiple deposits plus the recently discovered and potentially very large Hemi gold deposit.
- Ephrems Joseph