Emerging nickel sulphide miner Western Mines Group [ASX:WMG] has revealed promising results for its nickel project at Mulga Tank in Western Australia.
The group is pursuing more metallurgical testing at the site. This news resonated well with investors, who voted up the miner’s stock by 65% in early morning trade.
WMG was trading for around 46 cents by midday, settling at a more modest increase on its last closing price by 47%.
Year-to-date, WMG’s stock price has climbed 190%, ballooning 138% in the month and 210% in the last week alone.
Compared with the wider market, the group is up nearly 67%:
Source: tradingview.com
Western Mines discovers high nickel percentage at Mulga Tank
Nickel sulphide explorer and newcomer Western Mines has made an encouraging announcement this morning regarding the latest results on initial aqua regia test work from the Mulga Tank Ni-Cu-PGE Project in WA.
The company said the test work results were highly positive, with the company using two different testing methods.
One was the four-acid method, which is used to break down most of the minerals, and the second was the aqua regia method, which dissolves most minerals.
WMG said of the testing:
‘Four acid is considered a near total digestion technique that breaks down most silicate and oxide minerals whereas aqua regia is considered a partial digestion technique that does not dissolve silicate minerals but does dissolve soluble sulphide minerals. The results of the comparison testwork suggests a high percentage of nickel in sulphide form versus silicate nickel, with intervals from all holes showing better than 97% similarity in results.’
Assay results have been received for intervals of nickel sulphide mineralisation from holes MTD012, MTD022 and MTD023.
The results have encouraged the group to conduct further metallurgical beneficiation test work, which will, in turn, allow them to demonstrate recovery of nickel sulphide into high-grade saleable concentrate.
Commenting on the aqua regia results, Managing Director Dr Caedmon Marriott said:
‘This basic comparison testwork attempts to further confirm the disseminated nickel mineralisation at Mulga Tank and prove that it is hosted in potentially recoverable sulphide form – these very positive results clearly demonstrate it is.
‘We’re conscious of exploring by economics and deliberately selected shallow intervals found in the top few hundred vertical metres that could be amenable to large scale open pit scenario. These intervals appear laterally continuous between holes MTD012, MTD022 and MTD023 over some 1.6km – though a lot of further drilling is required to confirm this. Upcoming hole MTP024 will also attempt to step out halfway between the broad intersections of mineralisation seen in holes MTD023 and MTD020 in the southeast corner of the body and hopefully really highlight the scale of the system.’
The group will follow up comparisons with plans for metallurgical beneficiation test work using bulk samples from the remaining drill core.
Dr Marriott believes further testing will demonstrate a payable high-grade nickel concentrate, which could be recovered from mineralised intervals, further unlocking the project and building confidence in resources drilling.
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Mahlia Stewart,
For Money Morning
