South Stirling

South Stirling Nickel-Copper Prospect

ASQ has secured a strategic position in the Biranup Zone of the Albany-Fraser Orogeny located in the south-west of Western Australia in the shires of Plantagenet and the City of Albany.

The Company has identified an anomalous drill hole from a 2015 Iluka Exploration Pty Ltd (“Iluka”) mineral sands exploration program. Iluka drilled 39 broad spaced air-core holes within the application area looking for mineral sand deposits in the overlying tertiary sediments. Iluka routinely assayed the end of hole (“EOH”) samples wherever the hole ended in crystalline basement rocks. Drill hole W00324 was logged as ending in dark orange brown saprolite at a depth of 28.5 – 30 m. The Company considers the copper, nickel and chromium results to be highly anomalous. Key element assay results for the W00324 EOH sample are given in Table 1.

Easting

Northing

From

To

Cu

Ni

Co

Cr

Zn

mGDA94

mGDA94

metres

metres

ppm

%

ppm

%

ppm

602024

6172779

28.5

30

974

0.79

832

0.52

523

Table 1. EOH assay results for Iluka air-core drill hole W00324 

 

page8image3116989696
Figure 1. ASQ aircore drill hole SS001 location plan with Historic Iluka drill holes shown on the reduced to pole (RTP) aeromagnetic image (note the mapped Major Faults, locations of these are expected to be approximate)

The Company considers the project area has the potential for Nickel-Copper magmatic sulphide mineralisation associated with mafic-ultramafic intrusions emplaced into granulite facies country rocks.

The company twinned the anomalous historic drillhole completed by Iluka Resources Limited (“Iluka”) by way of a single vertical aircore hole SS001 (Figure 1).  ASQ’s SS001 was terminated at 52m due to difficult drilling conditions prior to intersecting fresh basement rock.

The encouraging assay results from SS001 include intersections; 12m from 26m @ 0.70% Ni and 0.06% Cu, within 21m from 21m @ 0.59% Ni and 0.05% Cu with maximum recorded values of 9,237ppm (0.92%) Ni from 28-30m and 1,007ppm Cu from 38-42m consistent with the previously reported Iluka result.

Petrography and mineralogy descriptions of selected drill chips show the mineralisation to occur in nickeliferous siderite with common evidence of concentrations of predominantly weathered Ni/Cu/Fe sulphide minerals. The association of siderite with sulphides is thought to be highly unusual and although the exact style of mineralisation is not known, it is likely the mineralised zone represents transported or in situ material formed within a local structural boundary such as the nearby WSW/ENE orientated major fault mapped by the Geological Survey of Western Australia (Figure 2).

The indication that significant concentrations of nickel and copper are present and may be associated with the numerous linear structures found within the project area is encouraging and potentially points to the faults acting as conduits for the movement of metals from any sulphide rich intrusions present within the basement sequence.

ASQ’s drilling was limited to the road reserve due to land access restrictions where it was possible to twin the anomalous Iluka hole. ASQ will continue efforts to establish neighbouring land access in order to further assess this anomaly.

ASQ commissioned exploration industry consultants Newexco Exploration Pty Ltd to complete reviews of the existing surface geochemistry and geophysics data and assist with target generation for the South Stirling Project. Newexco applied an advanced magnetic and radiometric processing suite to the South Stirling dataset in order to better delineate magnetic source rocks that may represent mafic intrusions. These interpreted intrusions have been prioritised against the surface geochemistry data yielding a number of areas that justify further work.

Any bedrock conductors identified by the AEM will be confirmed by ground electromagnetics surveys following establishment of land access and prior to drill testing.

ASQ is actively seeking joint venture partners for strategic involvement in the South Stirling Project and has received a number of approaches from major mining companies.The prospectivity of the Project presents a rare opportunity for a motivated group to get involved. Discussions are underway with several well credentialed parties who have expressed an interest in earning into the project by way of funding the exploration ASQ plan to carry out or by undertaking the exploration themselves.