Blackstone Minerals strikes again with new Viper nickel zone at Ta Khoa Project in Vietnam

Blackstone Minerals Ltd (ASX:BSX) (FRA:B9S) has continued its impressive run of results from the Ta Khoa Nickel-Copper-PGE in Vietnam with the Viper discovery, a new zone of mineralisation coincident with high-priority EM plates east of the Ban Chang prospect. Identification of the Viper Discovery Zone (VDZ) has seen the company's shares increase again, rising up 9.6% today to a new high of 46 cents, double the close on July 17. The company’s in-house geophysics crew recently generated the blind discovery of potential massive sulphide nickel targets at VDZ with a series of new shallow EM anomalies around 200 metres northeast of Ban Chang East. Blackstone’s geology team followed up the new EM anomalies with a series of trenches to better understand the prospectivity of the VDZ and discovered a nickel-copper gossan with a float sample assaying 0.8% nickel and 0.5% copper. Potential for “much more undiscovered” nickel Managing director Scott Williamson said: “We’re excited to announce the new Viper Discovery Zone at Ban Chang, a massive sulphide target initially generated by our in-house geophysics team and recently followed up by our geology team to confirm the potential of the target to host nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation. “The VDZ is a blind discovery which bodes well for further blind discoveries throughout the Ta Khoa Nickel-Copper-PGE district and shows the potential of this project to host much more undiscovered nickel sulphide mineralisation. “In addition to blind discovery potential, we have 25 massive sulphide targets, which are all associated with outcropping mineralisation at surface, and with our in-house geophysics team we can generate additional blind discoveries that were not known to previous operators of the project.” Blackstone’s four maiden drill holes at nearby Ban Chang have all previously intersected massive sulphide nickel over a 1.2 kilometres strike within a 1.2-kilometre-long massive sulphide target zone defined by high priority EM plates. Aggressive exploration program continues The company is continuing its aggressive exploration program with six drill rigs, four owned by the company. Three rigs are drilling at Ban Chang, testing massive sulphide vein (MSV) targets and three are testing down dip extensions of the King Cobra Discovery Zone (KCZ) at Ban Phuc. A maiden resource estimate and scoping study on downstream processing to produce nickel sulphate for the lithium-ion battery industry are on track for release this quarter.