What has happened?
Blackstone Minerals (ASX:BSX) announced that it has received several batches of assay results, including some of the maiden drill holes completed at King Snake. Results from Blackstone’s maiden program at King Snake together with historic drill results have defined a strike length of over 800m at King Snake which includes MSV, semi-massive sulphide vein (SMSV) and disseminated sulphides (DSS).
What are the key highlights?
- Blackstone reported that they have received several batches of assay results. Amongst the assay results obtained are those for the King Snake and Ban Chang prospects.
- The company believes that King Snake has excellent potential to add to the Company’s Massive Sulphide Vein (MSV) mining inventory and that it supports the restart of the existing 450ktpa concentrator.
- The Company reported that the ongoing campaign at the King Snake prospect continues to intersect MSV mineralisations.
- The first two drill holes at King Snake returned the following intercepts:
KS20-01A:
0.60m @ 2.79% Ni, 3.81% Cu, 0.10% Co & 4.85g/t PGE1 from 193.05m
KS20-02:
5.88m @ 1.22% Ni, 0.49% Cu, 0.04% Co & 4.67g/t PGE1 from 131.74m incl.
1.81m @ 0.77% Ni, 0.44% Cu, 0.03% Co & 12.53g/t PGE1 from 131.74m
1.18m @ 3.72% Ni, 0.84% Cu, 0.12% Co & 2.41g/t PGE1 from 135.47m
Blackstone's drilling at King Snake focuses on new Electro-magnetic (EM) targets that extend down plunge to the west of historical drilling. Initial assay results from current reporting and visual inspections suggest greater thickness of sulphide mineralisation down plunge of historic drilling.
With resource estimation currently underway at Ban Chang, King Snake has become the Company's highest priority MSV exploration target. Multiple drill rigs are currently on-site and will continue to test the extent of the mineralisation.
Drilling at Ban Chang has identified multiple massive sulphide lenses concentrated particularly to the west, often associated with broader disseminated sulphide zones. This mineralisation style potentially lends itself to a mechanised underground mining scenario, and studies are currently underway for the preliminary determination of suitable mining methods. Visual inspection of more recent drilling at Ban Chang has confirmed multiple further occurrences of massive sulphide mineralisation.
