Nexus Minerals Ltd (ASX:NXM) is trading higher after identifying new shallow, high-grade gold prospects from regional drilling at its Wallbrook Gold Project in the north-eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.
The “exceptional regional exploration success” came as part of a 284-hole regional aircore drill program for 9,811 metres, in which all four targets delivered broad and high-grade near-surface gold assay results.
This drilling program was designed to systematically assess four shallow priority regional targets and returned strong results across all targets, including two new discoveries with material broad and high-grade intercepts.
The results continue to demonstrate the robust exploration opportunity at Wallbrook and validate the company’s exploration strategy, focused on delivering near-surface gold discoveries.
Shares up
Investors have welcomed the regional success with NXM shares as much as 27.78% higher in the first hour of ASX trading to $0.069.
The program included follow-up drilling at target MC2.1, and first-pass drilling of new targets Payns Prospect (MC5.2), Godfrey Prospect (MC2.2) and target MC1.5.
The targets were selected for their potential to host near-surface gold mineralisation with sufficient scale to materially build on the project ounce portfolio.
“This has been an incredible result to a well-executed aircore program, with strong results across all four targets drill tested,” Nexus managing director Andy Tudor said.
“Whilst any one of the prospects assessed represent a major success, the highlight of the program is the Payns Prospect discovery. This prospect is the combined footprint of MC5.1 and MC5.2 which offers exciting scale and grade potential for the Wallbrook Gold Project.
Significant discovery at Payns
Payns Prospect (combined target MC5.2 and target MC5.1) has returned “exceptional” results with assay highlights including:
- 4 metres at 6.85 g/t gold within 16 metres at 2.74 g/t from 28 metres;
- 4 metres at 7.12 g/t within 20 metres at 1.77 g/t from 8 metres;
- 4 metres at 6.59 g/t within 8 metres at 3.44 g/t from 40 metres;
- 4 metres at 5.02 g/t within 8 metres at 2.60 g/t from 20 metres; and
- 1 metre at 5.99 g/t to end-of-hole within 8 metres at 1.28 g/t from 28 metres.
Nexus says that the combined footprint of these two targets represents a significant new discovery on the project with significant potential for expansion.
Godfrey Prospect
Godfrey Prospect (target MC2.2) also returned very encouraging results with a 1,200 x 100 metre gold anomaly returning strong widths and grades, with parallels to the Crusader-Templar Deposit 600 metres to the west.
Highlight results include:
- 4 metres at 4.02 g/t gold within 15 metres at 1.30 g/t from 24 metres;
- 4 metres at 2.17 g/t within 8 metres at 1.33 g/t from 24 metres;
- 4 metres at 3.81 g/t from 12 metres; and
- 4 metres at 2.78 g/t from 28 metres.
Strong regional opportunity
The results continue to demonstrate the strong regional exploration opportunity at the Wallbrook Gold Project, whilst also validating the company’s focus on high-quality shallow discoveries.
Nexus is now planning follow-up aircore drilling to expand upon this success.
Tudor added, “Through the exploration team's achievements, we continue to demonstrate the ability for Wallbrook to deliver additional gold discoveries.
“We will continue to use first-pass aircore drilling to follow up on these results and to complete our planned testing of the 18 high-priority regional targets.
“We will then rank the targets for follow-up RC drilling. Planning for the next phase of exploration aircore drilling is already well advanced.”
Nexus Wallbrook regional targets.