{australien_flagge}Outstanding drill results at the 50/50 Mt Thirsty JV project have pushed Conico Ltd’s (ASX CNJ) share price up a whopping 100 percent overnight on heavy turnover. Shares in JV partner Greenstone Resources were up 21 percent. While the partners still have not been able to repeat the high-grade Callisto PGE discovery of their neighbor Galileo. Instead, all 11 holes now released at Mt. Thirsty intersected three clearly defined mineralised horizons, starting with an upper Ni-Co-Mn-Sc horizon, a middle PGE horizon and a lower Ni horizon. Results from 17, 4 and 5 holes for the upper, middle and lower zones, respectively, are pending. In addition to cobalt and nickel, significant scandium values were measured for the first time. According to Conico, the latest drilling thus underlines the potential for future scandium resources. Recovery of the scandium by-product could make the economics of mining the Co-Ni resource at Mt Thirsty (see PFS released to ASX:CNJ on 20/02/2020) much more attractive.
{australien_flagge}Outstanding drill results at the 50/50 Mt Thirsty JV project have pushed Conico Ltd’s (ASX CNJ) share price up a whopping 100 percent overnight on heavy turnover. Shares in JV partner Greenstone Resources were up 21 percent. While the partners still have not been able to repeat the high-grade Callisto PGE discovery of their neighbor Galileo. Instead, all 11 holes now released at Mt. Thirsty intersected three clearly defined mineralised horizons, starting with an upper Ni-Co-Mn-Sc horizon, a middle PGE horizon and a lower Ni horizon. Results from 17, 4 and 5 holes for the upper, middle and lower zones, respectively, are pending. In addition to cobalt and nickel, significant scandium values were measured for the first time. According to Conico, the latest drilling thus underlines the potential for future scandium resources. Recovery of the scandium by-product could make the economics of mining the Co-Ni resource at Mt Thirsty (see PFS released to ASX:CNJ on 20/02/2020) much more attractive.
The recent drilling campaign used a combination of reverse circulation and diamond drilling techniques that allowed holes to be extended to an average depth of 350 meters below surface, significantly deeper than the air-core techniques commonly used at Mt Thirsty in the past.
Upper Zone: Nickel-Cobalt-Manganese-Scandium (Ni-Ci-Mn-Sc).
The Upper Zone consists of weathered ultramafic peridotite rocks containing nickel-cobalt-manganese-scandium mineralization. Importantly, recent drilling has confirmed the presence of a lower and potentially higher grade Ni-Co-Mn-Sc zone that currently lies outside the existing resource and is supported by historical drilling (Figure 1):
Figure 1: Cross section of MTRC011DA including 15.0 meters @ 0.45% Co, 0.91% Ni, 5.42% Mn & 40.9g/t Sc from 45.0 meters, which is outside the current resource.
Middle Zone: Palladium-Platinum-Gold-Nickel (PGE-Horizon)
The Middle Zone consists of an intrusive gabbro sill hosting anomalous palladium-platinum-gold-copper-nickel mineralization (Callisto style). Importantly, high-grade anomalous mineralization has been intersected in all 15 holes for which assay results are available.
Lower Zone: Nickel (Ni)
The lower zone consists of a chrome-rich basalt containing a thick zone of continuous nickel mineralization. Importantly, nickel mineralization was intersected in 8 of 14 drill holes for which assay results are available.
Having intersected both the target horizon and anomalous PGE mineralization in all holes for which assays are available, geologists believe that secondary structural controls are influencing the spatial distribution of high-grade Callisto style mineralization in the region. Based on currently available information, regional folding is believed to have created structural traps that contribute to the development of localized zones of Callisto-style sulfide enrichment.
Guy Le Page, Executive Director, commented, “These latest results highlight the prospects of the Mt Thirsty project. We have gained a much better understanding of local influences on mineralization over the course of the exploration campaign in recent months, with a recent focus on potential structural traps accumulating sulphides.”
Bottom line: many investors had probably written off the Mt Thirsty JV project because it failed to repeat its neighbor Galileo’s PGE discovery on the first try – wrongly, as it now turns out. The JV partners Conico and Greenstone meanwhile distinguish three concrete target horizons with different mineralization characteristics in the Mt Thirsty sediments. The current drilling has, after all, defined a continuous nickel horizon with a strike extent of 1,000 by 400 meters and an average thickness of ~15.0 meters. In addition, as the understanding of local structures or traps grows, so does the opportunity for a high-grade Callisto-style discovery. JV partners Conico and Greenstone are now exploring options to consolidate the MTJV ownership structure through an IPO.
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