Saints Nickel Project
The Saints Nickel Project comprises 20km2 across Western Australia’s nickel-rich Archaean Greenstone belt, approximately 65km northwest of Kalgoorlie and 7km east of the Goldfields Highway. The project contains an existing JORC (2012) compliant resource of 1.05Mt @ 2.0% Ni, 0.2% Cu and 0.06% Co for 21,400 tonnes of contained nickel, 1,600 tonnes of contained copper and 600 tonnes of contained cobalt.
Leinster Nickel Project
Located approximately 40km southeast of the township of Leinster and approximately 60km north-northwest of Leonora in the East Murchison Mineral Field of Western Australia, the Lenister Nickel Project covers approximately 112km2 of the nickel-rich Archaean Greenstone belt within the eastern goldfields of the Yilgarn Craton. The project contains a JORC (2004) compliant Inferred Mineral Resources estimate of 0.6Mt @ 1.4% Ni and 0.3% Cu for 8,300 tonnes of contained nickel and 1,800 tonnes of contained copper.
Torrens East Copper Project
The Torrens East Copper Project comprises 1,622km2 of ground considered highly-prospective for Iron Oxide Copper-Gold (IOCG) mineralisation in the Lake Torrens region of South Australia. The project is situated adjacent to the Torrens JV (70% Aeris Resources Ltd; 30% Argonaut Resources NL) and approximately 50km from BHP’s recently announced drilling in the Olympic Dam copper-gold province, host to the world class Olympic Dam (BHP Group Ltd) and Carrapateena (Oz Minerals Ltd) IOCG deposits.
Bonaventura Project
The Bonaventura Project is located in the northern part of Kangaroo Island, with highly-prospective geology along 30km of strike of the regional-scale Cygnet-Snelling Fault. Recent diamond drilling at the Dewrang Prospect intercepted zinc-lead mineralisation which correlated with a previously untested 1.5km geophysical IP anomaly.
Arden Project
Located some 335km north of Adelaide, the Arden Project boasts a large relatively unexplored area of 1,664km2 which is highly-prospective for sedimentary exhalative (SEDEX) mineralisation. Within the Arden Project up to three horizons of SEDEX zinc mineralisations were identified from the recent drilling programme at the Ragless Range Prospect extending over 3km of strike and open in every direction.
Regions
Western Australia
The mining sector is critical for the Goldfields with gold and nickel mining operations defining the Goldfields region and providing the foundation for many of its settlements. Nickel mines surfaced in Kambalda, Laverton and the Kimberly region in the late 1960’s and the onset of the Vietnam War saw a shortage of international supply and the nickel price soared.
The Goldfields-Esperance Region makes a substantial contribution to the Western Australian economy, $7.5 billion (Gross Regional Product) in 2018, with Investment in new mines and capacity expansions expected to support higher production. Mine production is forecast to grow at an average 11 per cent a year to 2020–21. Refined production is forecast to increase an average 10 per cent a year, reaching 145,000 tonnes in 2020–21.
South Australia
South Australia exports almost one-third of Australia’s mined copper and over half of Australia’s mined uranium. Mineral exports are the largest export sector in South Australia totalling $3.4billion and accounting for 29% of total state exports. By 2030, South Australia will be the major contributor to Australia’s position as the world’s third-largest copper producer.
The state government recently invested $660 million dollars redeveloping the Port Pirie base metals smelter, transforming the facility into an advanced polymetallic processing and recovery facility. Significant quantities of refined lead, zinc and silver are exported from the Port Pirie mineral processing facility.
