Maximus gleans “vital geochemistry” for gold, nickel project

Maximus Resources has defined a raft of follow-up targets at its Spargoville project following positive gold, nickel and platinum group metal results from its recently completed air-core program at the site in Western Australia’s Goldfields region.

The 6500m campaign at the project near Kambalda returned results of 20m at 0.32 per cent nickel, 139 parts per million copper and 22 parts per billion platinum group elements (PGE) from surface, including 4m going 0.44 per cent nickel, 76ppm copper and 23ppb PGE from 12m at the company’s Central prospect.

Additional highlights from Central showed a 16m hit grading 0.29 per cent nickel, 8ppm copper and 18ppb PGE from 28m and 12m at 0.31 per cent nickel, 114ppm copper and 31ppb PGE from 8m, including 4m going 0.43 per cent nickel, 107ppm copper and 31ppb PGE from 8m.

Air-core drilling at Maximus’ Hilditch West prospect returned a 16m section at 0.32 per cent nickel, 178ppm copper and 30ppb PGE from 20m, including 4m going 0.41 per cent nickel, 134ppm copper and 30ppb PGE from 28m.

The company’s Kemble prospect also returned positive results including 27m going 0.29 per cent nickel, 88ppm copper and 21ppb PGE from 8m, in addition to 20m reading 0.32 per cent nickel, 81ppm copper and 17ppb PGE from surface.

The air-core campaign also defined a broad gold anomaly over a 1km strike at Kemble, with highlights showing an 8m intercept at 0.3 grams per tonne gold from 4m, including 4m going 0.46g/t gold from 4m.

In addition to the success in defining a fertile nickel-sulphide komatiite channel at the Misho nickel prospect, the complete multi-target low-cost air-core drill programme has delineated additional gold and nickel targets at Central, Hilditch and Kemble. These early-stage air-core drill programmes provided vital geochemistry to vector-in on prospective targets for follow-up RC drilling.

The South Australian-based company holds 48 square kilometres of mining licences, plus gold rights across a further 60sq km along the fertile Spargoville shear zone – an area that hosts multiple significant gold and nickel deposits.

The Central nickel target is about 5km of highly-prospective stratigraphy between Estrella Resources’ 1A nickel mine to the north and Andrews Shaft to the south. The strike of the three ultramafic horizons and prospective basal contacts remain untested by drilling. Maximus holds 80 per cent of the nickel rights at the Central target with 20 per cent belonging to Estrella.

Maximus says its Spargoville tenements are highly-prospective for Kambalda-style komatiite-hosted nickel sulphide mineralisation, presenting it with an excellent opportunity to potentially discover nickel sulphides in a highly-fertile area in parallel with advanced gold exploration.

Data analysis from the latest drilling will be used to define the exact location of basal contact and provide vital geochemistry information to narrow in on prospective targets for follow-up drilling. Planning approvals for additional air-core drill programs are currently underway to explore untested areas across the Spargoville tenements for potential nickel exploration targets.

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