Aston Minerals bumps nickel resource estimate south of Timmins by 44%
Aston Minerals Limited has announced an update of the nickel-cobalt sulphide Mineral Resource Estimate across the Boomerang Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide System, Edleston Project south of Timmins.
Managing Director, Russell Bradford, commented: "The maiden resource declared in February 2023 gave Aston a strong foundation to continue to build on its technical knowledge about the Boomerang nickel-cobalt sulphide deposit. The drilling program put together in 2023 had two objectives and these have both been successfully met."
"The first was to understand the extension of the resource in the B2 Zone. The B2 resource was extended by an additional 500 metres on strike and depths of 450 metres with significant nickel and sulphur intersections. The 2023 drilling program at B2 contributed additional inferred resource. This will allow us to target areas and convert material to Indicated resources during our next drilling campaign."
"The second objective was to convert Inferred resources at the Bardwell Zone to Indicated. The short-hole and in-fill drilling program did this with an improvement of 44 % in the Indicated category compared to the maiden resource reported in February 2023. The entire Indicated resource is situated at the Bardwell Zone which allows focus to be placed at Bardwell for future economic studies and mining schedules."
"I am pleased to say that as a Company, we are at a point where strong technical project indicators are becoming identified through the required work which has been conducted over the year. The information being generated gives potential strategic partners and government agencies in the critical minerals space an understanding of what potential such a significant large-scale mineral deposit can become. I'm very pleased with the outcomes to date and would like to thank everyone involved with Aston Minerals. I look forward to continuing growing the knowledge base as we move into our next phase of feasibility development."
The recent metallurgical flotation work being conducted at Corem Laboratory Quebec, Canada has shown strong metallurgical performance as a function of both the nickel and the sulphur grade. This latest update of the resource gives Aston significant information on the nickel and sulphur domains within the Boomerang Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide System and its two deposits. Metallurgical locked cycle tests are currently being conducted which will feed back into the Geo-metallurgical model. Now that the mineral resource estimate has been updated, drill core from Bardwell will be composited and used in metallurgical flowsheet variability testing which will start in the 2nd quarter 2024. These results will form the basis of the mine schedule.
In addition, regional exploration targets are being evaluated and will form part of a larger drilling program to be designed and implemented in 2025.
Introduction
The Edleston Nickel Project (Project) is located approximately 60 km via road to the south of the City of Timmins, Ontario, Canada. The cities of Timmins and Kirkland Lake are located close by and host significant former and current producers, with required services and skilled labour available to support exploration and development of the Project. The region is globally recognised in terms of long-lived, large-scale open pit and underground mining operations with a strong mining heritage.
The Project is located within the Abitibi Greenstone Belt of Archean metavolcanic and metasedimentary units that have been steeply folded with axes trending in general east-west orientation.
The Boomerang resources are situated within a Dunite/Peridotite unit, covering >6.5 km of strike which has undergone extensive serpentinization. This serpentinization (alteration) process is characterised by the breakdown of olivine and the production of magnetite and brucite, resulting in a strongly reducing environment whereby nickel is released from the decomposition of olivine. The nickel which has been released is typically partitioned into low sulphur nickel sulphide minerals (e.g., Heazlewoodite). Due to the magnetite association with mineralisation, a 3D inversion model of magnetics was generated and has been utilised to assist with targeting.
Figure 2: Plan Map - Boomerang Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide System Global Mineral Resource (Bardwell and B2 zones).
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Exploration Completed by Aston
Nickel-cobalt sulphide mineralisation was discovered by Aston in September 2021 at the Bardwell Prospect, and ongoing diamond drilling of the entire Boomerang Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide System was conducted through to November 2023. A total of 79 diamond drill holes for 32,898 m of drilling has been completed.
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