Pioneer Resources (ASX:PIO) has commenced a drilling in the Albany Fraser Orogen of Western Australia, which is one of Australia's hottest exploration postcodes following Sirius Resources (ASX:SIR) Nova-Bollinger discovery.
Pioneer's program will consist of up to 99 stratigraphic aircore holes over 5000 metres at the FWNi003 nickel anomaly, within its Fairwater Nickel Project (75% Pioneer).
At Fairwater the company is exploring for mafic-intrusion hosted nickel sulphide deposits, similar to those at Nova-Bollinger, which is located 100 kilometres away.
Mafic-intrusions host a number of other major nickel deposits in Australia besides Nova, including Nebo-Babel and Radio Hill deposits, and overseas, Norilsk and Voisey's Bay.
The key positive outcomes sought will be confirmation of the presence of a mafic volcanic complex, supported by anomalous nickel and copper geochemistry within the regolith.
If these are positive further drilling will be immediately planned.
The target is under sand-cover, and the shallow aircore drilling will enable the company to identify geological units and appraise subsurface geochemistry.
The program is expected to take three weeks with the final results expected in April.
Objectives at Fairwater
The key outcomes Pioneer is looking to achieve at Fairwater is to confirm the presence of mafic and/or differentiated ultramafic rocks, being the geological host for mafic intrusion-related nickel deposits.
If drilling can return anomalous, coincident, nickel, copper and PGM geochemical responses within the regolith samples, then these boost the prospectivity as they have the potential to indicate magmatic sulphide mineralisation.
The FWNi003 target features:
- Aeromagnetic data which shows a cluster of magnetic units with a response consistent with mafic or ultramafic rock units, occurring over a strike length of 2 kilometres;
- Elevated nickel and chrome soil geochemistry results which coincide with the magnetic units. These are strong indicators that mafic or ultramafic rocks occur beneath the sand cover;
- Coincident nickel-copper and platinum group metal anomalism, which together are considered indicators for the presence of magmatic sulphides within the mafic complex; and
- Proterozoic aged stratigraphy.
Analysis
Pioneer has entered a key active exploration phase in the Albany Fraser Orogen, with drilling having now commenced at the Fairwater nickel project.
The company's shares are highly leveraged to exploration success given cash of $2.2m (Dec' Qtr) and a market cap. of $12 million. Pioneer raised $500,000 through a placement at $0.018 in February.
The company is offering a Share Purchase Plan (SPP) at the same price as the placement, which attracted new investors.
Key catalysts:
- Completion of the current capital raising initiative.
- Drilling at Fairwater, with results from inaugural drilling that are expected around April.
- Commencement of the inaugural Blair Nickel Mine Extensions drilling immediately after Fairwater drilling finishes. Results expected Q2 2015.
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