Mt Jewell Project

Mt Jewell Project Size: 64 kb Width: 550 px Height: 605 px		GSP Resource Size: 120 kb Width: 745 px Height: 652 px		GSP Long-Section Size: 112 kb Width: 800 px Height: 542 px
GSP Cross-Section Size: 88 kb Width: 600 px Height: 464 px

Location and Tenements

The Mt Jewell project is located 65km north of Kalgoorlie and 20km along strike to the northwest of the Silver Swan and Black Swan nickel deposits (approximately 185,000t Ni – production and resources) and contains a 20km strike length of a highly prospective komatiite sequence. The tenements cover an area of 40km². Three main prospects were identified during historic exploration – Ringlock, GSP and Mt Jewell. A nickel sulphide Inferred Mineral Resource of 86,000t at 2% nickel has been defined by previous explorers at the GSP prospect. Magma has an 80% interest in the project.  

Geology, Exploration History and Targets

There has been significant previous exploration for nickel on the Mt Jewell tenements since the late 1960’s. Several companies have conducted drilling programs and geophysical surveys; however, 70% of drill holes are less than 70m deep. Deeper drilling was focused on the GSP resource area, with limited deeper drilling at Ringlock and Mt Jewell. While several geophysical anomalies were defined and tested, some with associated nickel mineralisation, many anomalies were not tested, generally because they were interpreted to reflect features other than nickel mineralization.

The komatiites are split into two main units for most of their 20km strike length within the project area, an eastern and a western unit with intervening basalt and dolerite. The western unit, which has been subject to most of the nickel exploration in the belt, contains several cumulate textured channels. Nickel mineralization has been intersected near the basal contacts of these channels. Zones of disseminated nickel sulphide mineralization >0.4% Ni have been intersected in the channels above these basal contacts. The footwall to the western unit comprises mainly felsic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks, but the basal komatiite has been intruded by granite over a strike length of approximately 4km in the northern part of the area around Ringlock. The eastern unit has previously been interpreted as a fold limb equivalent of the western unit, with a fold closure north of the Ringlock prospect, but it could also be a thrust repeat of the western unit or simply another komatiite flow. There has been little exploration of this unit, although nickel mineralization has been intersected within it, including 4.5m at 0.8% nickel, 4.4km northwest of the GSP resource.

The GSP Inferred Mineral Resource of 86,000t at 2.0% nickel is approximately 100m in strike length and plunges south from approximately 45m to 175m deep, where it has been interpreted by previous explorers to be cut by a north-south fault. However, a review of exploration data has cast doubt on this interpretation and shows that the mineralisation is likely to be open at depth providing considerable potential for down-plunge additions to the resource. 

The principal targets at Mt Jewell are massive and disseminated nickel-sulphides at or near the bases of komatiite flow channels. Geophysical and drilling programs are planned to investigate these.

This section was last updated on 7 October 2009. For more recent information, please refer to the "Investor Information" section.