What's happened?
- Blackstone continued its aggressive exploration program testing multiple massive sulfide vein (MSV) prospects throughout the Ta Khoa nickel sulfide district;
- Blackstone extended the strike of the Ban Chang prospect, with “step out” reconnaissance style drilling intersecting high-grade mineralisation; maiden drill holes at Ban Chang have intersected high-grade massive sulfide nickel over a 1.2km strike within a massive sulfide target zone now extended to more than 2km strike;
- Blackstone’s addition of a second geophysics crew and the purchase of three additional drill rigs have allowed the company to double its exploration capacity at the Ta Khoa Nickel-Cu-PGE project in Vietnam and bring the all-in diamond drilling cost to US$50/m,an ~ 60% reduction in drilling cost relative to Australian industry averages (refers to quoted rates received in Australia for equivalent diamond drilling);
- Following the completion of a highly successful geophysics program at Ban Chang, Blackstone’s geophysics crew was mobilised to the new Nickel-Cu-PGE target Ta Cuong, located 6km along strike from Ban Chang, where drilling is targeting electromagnetic (EM)plates generated by Blackstone’s in-house geophysics crew;
- Blackstone’s in-house geophysics crew also generated the blind discovery of potential massive sulfide nickel targets at the Viper Discovery Zone (VDZ) east of Ban Chang;
- Blackstone raised $17.8 million (before costs) through a placement of 42,426,356 fully paid ordinary shares at an issue price of $0.42 per share and welcomed new long-term institutional investors to the Company’s register including cornerstone investor Fidelity International;
- The September Quarter has seen Blackstone position itself to significantly advance the Ta Khoa Nickel-Cu-PGE Project over the coming year, with a strong cash position of $22.7million (Pre $3 million SPP completed in October) and supportive shareholder base;
- Post the September Quarter, Blackstone completed a Scoping Study demonstrating the potential for a high margin, scalable operation with significant upside.
What are the key highlights?
A lot to unpack with Blackstone’s September quarterly!
Key highlights were the aggressive exploration happening at Ta Khoa, strike-extension at Ban Chang, and significant geophysics team growth.
Read our full overview below, and make sure to check out the video from the operation!
