NickelX Ltd (ASX:NKL) is focused on critical minerals, particularly nickel, cobalt and platinum group elements (PGEs), with its flagship asset being the Dalwallinu Nickel Project in the West Yilgarn province of Western Australia.
At Dalwallinu, the company is targeting Julimar-style nickel-copper-PGE mineralisation as are a number of other junior explorers active in the emerging region.
NickelX is also evaluating a range of value-accretive exploration projects in other commodities, such as uranium and gold.
About Dalwallinu
Dalwallinu covers 86 square kilometres of the entire Barra Barra Greenstone Belt, is on accessible private farmland, contains sealed road frontage and Native Title has been extinguished.
It is located 208 kilometres northeast of Perth and 1 kilometre off the Great Northern Highway.
An infill auger drilling soil sampling program defined multiple high-priority geochemical anomalies over a combined strike length of about 12 kilometres.
High-priority targets
The highest priority targets at Dalwallinu represent some of the highest West Yilgarn PGE assays, including 73.7 parts per billion (ppb) platinum and palladium, as well as significant and coincident anomalous values for nickel and copper of up to 466 parts per million (ppm) nickel and 843ppm copper.
High-priority geochemical targets complement the modelled Moving Loop Electromagnetic (MLEM) and Fixed Loop Electromagnetic (FLEM) bedrock conductors at DEM1 and DEM2, which are both prospective for massive sulphides.
The auger soil geochemical and FLEM targets align and are consistently offset outboard of prominent magnetic strata thought to represent banded iron formation (BIF).
This is consistent with an interpretation of a folded sill complex, sitting stratigraphically below and folded with the BIF.
At DEM2, the high-priority geophysical target represents some of the strongest FLEM responses in the West Yilgarn over 65 x 65 metres with a high conductance (16,850 S) sub-vertical plate at a very shallow depth of about 30 metres from surface.
RC drilling imminent
In order to follow up these high values, the company is planning a reverse circulation (RC) drilling program of around 1,700 metres with drilling crews mobilised to the site.
The company has received notice from the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS) of the proposed Program of Works (POW) for the drill program, for which Strike Drilling has been contracted.
“Significant prospectivity”
NickelX managing director Matt Gauci said: “The NickelX team is very excited to commence drilling shortly at the Dalwallinu project which has significant prospectivity for nickel-copper-PGE mineralisation and numerous high-priority targets, prospective for Julimar-type nickel-copper-PGE mineralisation.
"A 1,700-metre reverse circulation campaign is now approved by the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety and drilling contractors have been contracted to test these very significant nickel-copper-PGE targets.”
At the end of the December quarter of 2023, the company had a cash position of $1.9 million to support the Dalwallinu drilling program and ongoing project generation.