Drilling of LN04a has defined a minimum 500m strike with a dip of at least 150m, with new assays such as 3.7m at 8.6% nickel, 3.7m at 6.8% and 5m at 4.5%.
Associated copper and cobalt were also returned.
There is plenty of potential for expansion, with the surface open along strike and up-dip.
A maiden resource is due before the end of July, and potentially as early as this month.
That’s a rapid turnaround given LN04a was only discovered in March.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Paul Wiggers de Vries estimates the initial LN04a resource could deliver a conservative 10,000-20,000 tonnes of nickel given comparisons with D1/D3 at Durkin North.
LN04a is within 100m of existing Durkin North underground infrastructure.
There are two diamond rigs assigned to Mincor’s Northern Operations, which covers Durkin North and Long, with an exploration focus on the Golden Mile.
Exploration and grade-control drilling are set to continue for the rest of 2022.
The Golden Mile spans a 1.1km gap between the recently resurrected Long and Durkin North mines. The other 5km of the 6km dome has yielded over 1Mt of nickel.
Beyond some historical work completed by Western Mining, the area hasn’t received a lot of work in recent decades because it was once bisected by the border between mine owners IGO and Mincor.
Following Mincor’s purchase of Long in 2019, and its more recent return to the nickel space after a dalliance with gold production, its consolidation of the Kambalda and Widgiemooltha domes for the first time in decades has allowed it to take a wide picture.
Digging into the data highlighted what it dubbed the “Golden Mile of Nickel”.
Drilling was immediately successful and has continued to deliver Kambalda-type, high-grade, high tenor massive sulphide intersections, confirming its geological modelling.
Mincor, which resumed delivering ore to BHP’s Kambalda nickel concentrator from both its Northern Operations and Cassini mine in recent months, expects to see its first cashflow in several years this month from its $68 million restart program.
It aims to ramp production up to the full targeted rates of 16,000tpa by the end of September.
De Vries remains bullish on the stock, particularly given the resumption of income and a likely resource upgrade.
He has maintained an outperform recommendation with a A$2.85 per share price target.
