Blackstone Discovers New Viper Nickel Zone At Ta Khoa

• Blackstone discovers a new zone of nickel mineralisation coincident with high priority electromagnetic (EM) plates at the Viper Discovery Zone (VDZ), east of Ban Chang;
• Blackstone’s in-house geophysics crew recently generated the blind discovery of potential massive sulfide nickel targets at VDZ with a series of new shallow EM anomalies located ~200m north-east of Ban Chang East;
• Blackstone’s geology team followed up the new EM anomalies with a series of trenches to better understand the prospectivity of the VDZ, trench BCH20-03 located directly above a new EM anomaly at VDZ discovered a nickel-copper gossan (iron cap formed by the oxidation of sulfides) with a float sample assaying 0.8% Ni & 0.5% Cu (determined by Niton portable XRF);
• VDZ is a blind discovery with no surface exposures of nickel sulfide or ultramafic which bodes well for further blind discoveries of massive sulfide nickel using Blackstone’s in-house geophysics crews to unlock the extensive potential throughout the Ta Khoa Nickel-Cu-PGE district;
• Blackstone’s four maiden drill holes at nearby Ban Chang all intersected massive sulfide nickel over a 1.2km strike within a 1.2km long massive sulfide target zone defined by high priority EM plates (refer to ASX announcements from 17 June 2020, 02 July 2020, 22 July 2020, and 11 August 2020);
• Blackstone is continuing its aggressive exploration program with six drill rigs, four owned by the Company. Three rigs are drilling at Ban Chang, testing massive sulfide vein (MSV) targets and three are testing down dip extensions of the King Cobra Discovery Zone (KCZ) at Ban Phuc;
• Blackstone’s Maiden Resource Estimate and Scoping Study on downstream processing to produce nickel sulfate for the lithium ion battery industry are also on track for release this quarter.

Blackstone Minerals’ Managing Director Scott Williamson commented:

“We’re excited to announce the new Viper Discovery Zone at Ban Chang, a massive sulfide target initially generated by our in-house geophysics team and recently followed up by our geology team to confirm the potential of the target to host nickel-copper sulfide mineralisation.”

“The VDZ is a blind discovery which bodes well for further blind discoveries throughout the Ta Khoa NickelCu-PGE district and shows the potential of this project to host much more undiscovered nickel sulfide mineralisation.”

“In addition to blind discovery potential, we have 25 massive sulfide targets, which are all associated with outcropping mineralisation at surface, and with our in-house geophysics team, we can generate additional blind discoveries that were not known to previous operators of the project.”

Figure 1: Gossan float in the overburden at trench BCH20-03

Blackstone Minerals Limited (ASX:BSX) is pleased to announce it has discovered a new zone of nickel mineralisation coincident with high priority EM plates at the VDZ, located to the east of the Ban Chang prospect.

Blackstone’s in-house geophysics crew recently generated the blind discovery of potential massive sulfide nickel targets at VDZ with a series of new shallow EM anomalies located ~200m north-east of Ban Chang East.

Blackstone’s geology team followed up the new EM anomalies with a series of trenches to better understand the prospectivity of the VDZ and discovered a nickel-copper gossan with a float sample assaying 0.8% Ni & 0.5% Cu (determined by Niton portable XRF).

To read the full press release, click here.

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