Two prospects at Boadicea Resources Ltd (ASX:BOA)’s Fraser Range tenements in Western Australia — Transline North Ballast NE prospect and Transline South Eggpie prospect — have been shown by IGO Ltd to contain promising nickel-copper-cobalt prospects.
Boadicea signed an agreement in late-2020 with IGO, providing IGO with five years of exclusive access and exploration rights over BOA’s six Fraser Range tenements.
Under this agreement, IGO Ltd operates the Transline North and Transline South tenements, where the Ballast NE and Eggpie prospects have been drilled and evaluated as prospective for nickel, copper and cobalt mineralisation.
IGO has now completed a geochemical analysis of the assays from drilling over the large Ballast magnetic “eye” feature at Ballast NE and the Eggpie prospect and will conduct ground electromagnetic surveys to identify potential nickel-copper-cobalt sulphide accumulations.
The prospects show medium to high prospectivity for nickel-copper-cobalt-bearing mafic-ultramafic rocks.
Boadicea managing director Cath Norman said: “The work underway by IGO at Eggpie and Ballast is gaining momentum, and the results are highly encouraging to continue further exploration of these two targets.
“The IGO agreement has been fruitful for BOA since signing in late 2020. We look forward to the next stage of exploration activities aimed at defining the next nickel-copper-cobalt deposit in the Fraser Range.”
Same methods used to discover Nova
Notably, the Nova nickel-copper deposit was discovered using the same conventional methods: soil geochemical surveys, air-core drilling, followed by Moving Loop Electromagnetic (MLEM) surveys and Reverse Circulation (RC) drill testing.
Nickel-copper-bearing mafic and ultramafic (MUM) magmas and the rare magmatic processes that are required to form massive nickel-copper sulphide deposits have occurred along the entire length of the Fraser Range belt. IGO has developed an in-house Mafic Prospectivity Index (MPI).
The mafic rocks encountered at both Eggpie and Ballast NE rate highly on this index, indicating potential for nickel and copper analogous to the Nova mafic intrusion.
Location of the BOA tenements over the northern Fraser Range, WA, highlighting those operated by IGO. Regional magnetic data is shown in the underlying image. The Ballast “Eye” feature is shown straddling the Transline North and Transline West (2) tenements. The Eggpie prospect is in the Transline South tenement.