What has happened?
In a surprise announcement, Blackstone (ASX:BSX) reported that they've hit a Massive Sulphide Vein (MSV) mineralisation in multiple drill holes from its maiden exploration program at the King Snake prospect. Blackstone believes that this immediate success at King Snake reaffirms the prospectivity of the region and the Company’s strategy in defining high-grade Nickel targets using Electro-magnetic (EM) geophysical techniques. Blackstone has also commenced the maiden resource estimate for the Ban Chang prospect and continues drilling at Ban Phuc, Ban Chang, Ta Cuong, Ban Khoa and King Snake.
What are the highlights?
-
At the King Snake prospect, the new Electro-magnetic targets generated in November of 2020 were followed up with diamond drilling, with six of the first seven holes intersecting MSV’s. This proves significant because it essentially reaffirms the prospectivity of the King Snake region and ties into the Companies vision of restarting the existing 450ktpa Ban Phuc concentrator.
-
These new intersections as noted prior, along with historic drill results have defined a potential strike length of 800m at King Snake. This new strike length includes MSV, Semi-massive sulphide vein (SMSV) and disseminated sulphide (DSS) mineralisation’s, with the mineralisation’s opening up in multiple directions.
-
Currently, the samples harvested from the initial King Snake drill holes are with the laboratory. However, Blackstone will continue to keep investors informed as new images and information become available.
What does this mean?
These recent findings at the King Snake prospect could hopefully see critical mass added to the Company’s high-grade MSV strategy which could see the restart of the existing 450ktpa Ban Phuc Concentrator. Initial diamond drilling intersections of King Snake suggests that the strike length could be over 800m in length which, along with other successful prospects in the Ta Khoa region, will hopefully provide many years of consistent high-quality nickel-copper-PGE concentrates for the Company’s planned downstream refinery business.
The Company's ultimate vision is focused on building an integrated upstream and downstream processing business in Vietnam that produces precursor Nickel:Cobalt:Manganese (NCM) products for Asia’s growing Lithium-ion battery industry. NCM products form a key component of the power cell for electronic vehicles, which is a market that has seen rapid growth in the past couple of years.
Blackstone has completed a Scoping Study which includes mining the Company’s maiden resource at the Ban Phuc Disseminated ore body and the construction of one downstream refinery. Furthermore, Blackstone is now advancing the Ta Khoa Project through to a Pre-feasibility Study which will contemplate the option to mine higher grade MSV deposits, which has the potential to reduce upfront capital requirements by enabling the Company to restart the existing 450ktpa Ban Phuc Concentrator.
