Blackstone Minerals Limited reported continued drilling success at King Cobra and Ban Chang, part of its flagship Ta Khoa Nickel-Cu-PGE project in Vietnam.
King Cobra Discovery Zone (KCZ) – Ban Phuc
There was successful infill and extensional drilling results at KCZ delivers some of the best intercepts to date and upgrades confidence in the Ban Phuc Disseminated Sulfide (DSS) deposit which which is detailed in the full announcement.
Significant intercepts from current reporting at KCZ and Ban Phuc include:
- BP20-30 127.2m @ 0.38% Ni, 0.03% Cu, 0.01% Co & 0.09g/t PGE1 from 20.65m incl. 14.45m @ 0.77% Ni, 0.15% Cu, 0.02% Co & 0.18g/t PGE from 122.7m
- BP20-31 21.3m @ 0.71% Ni, 0.09% Cu, 0.01% Co & 0.18g/t PGE from 48.7m incl. 11m @ 0.95% Ni, 0.13% Cu, 0.01% Co & 0.24g/t PGE from 59m
- BP20-32 149.2m @ 0.42% Ni, 0.06% Cu, 0.01% Co & 0.08g/t PGE from 3m
- BP20-34 127.6m @ 1.17% Ni, 0.22% Cu, 0.02% Co & 0.24g/t PGE from 14m incl. 85m @ 1.36% Ni, 0.27% Cu, 0.03% Co & 0.25g/t PGE from 22m
- BP20-35 96.1m @ 0.83% Ni, 0.17% Cu, 0.02% Co & 0.26g/t PGE from 18.4m incl. 50.2m @ 1.05% Ni, 0.2% Cu, 0.02% Co & 0.4g/t PGE from 45m
- BP20-39 166.1m @ 0.75% Ni, 0.16% Cu, 0.01% Co & 0.29g/t PGE from 6.3m incl. 79.8m @ 1.12% Ni, 0.27% Cu, 0.02% Co & 0.45g/t PGE from 10.5m
- 1 Platinum (Pt) + Palladium (Pd) + Gold (Au)
The Ban Phuc DSS deposit underpins the Company’s maiden Indicated Mineral Resource of 44.3Mt @ 0.52% Ni for 229kt Ni.
Additionally, the recently announced Scoping Study which demonstrates an economically robust nickel sulfide project to produce downstream Nickel:Cobalt:Manganese (NCM) precursor products for the Lithium-ion battery industry. (Refer to ASX announcement from 14 October 2020);
Ban Chang - Massive Sulfide Nickel
Blackstone continues to target Massive Sulfide Vein (MSV) prospects analogous to the previously mined Ban Phuc MSV, where previous owners successfully mined 975kt of high-grade ore at average grades of 2.4% Ni & 1.0% Cu from an average vein width of 1.3m.
This follows initial drill holes at Ban Chang which intersected high‐grade massive sulfide nickel over a 1.2km strike length.
Significant intercepts from current reporting at Ban Chang include:
- BC20-16 5.65m @ 1.04% Ni, 1.16% Cu, 0.05% Co & 0.71g/t PGE from 55.1m incl. 1.92m @ 2.1% Ni, 2.56% Cu, 0.11% Co & 1.46g/t PGE from 58.9m
- BC20-19 15.8m @ 0.47% Ni, 0.25% Cu, 0.03% Co & 0.21g/t PGE from 41.8m incl. 1.9m @ 1.21% Ni, 0.48% Cu, 0.07% Co & 0.7g/t PGE from 55.6m
- BC20-20 3.85m @ 0.81% Ni, 0.57% Cu, 0.05% Co & 0.36g/t PGE from 46.0m incl. 1.7m @ 1.45% Ni, 1.08% Cu, 0.08% Co & 0.60g/t PGE from 48.15m
- BC 20-26 16.3m @ 0.58% Ni, 0.37% Cu, 0.04% Co & 0.3g/t PGE from 54m incl. 0.55m @ 1.49% Ni, 1.63% Cu, 0.09% Co & 0.49g/t PGE from 62.9m