St George Mining to launch exploration campaign at Mt Alexander this week targeting nickel-copper sulphides

St George Mining Ltd (ASX:SGQ) (FRA:S0G) will be launching a multi-faceted exploration campaign at its flagship Mt Alexander Project in the north-eastern goldfields of Western Australia this week, with a 4,000-metre drilling program set to target massive nickel-copper sulphides.  A diamond drill rig is scheduled to arrive at site on Friday, operating with two crews, on a 24/7 basis.  In recognition of the lead time for completion of metallurgical test work in Canada, drilling will initially focus on completing five metallurgical holes at the Stricklands prospect for a total of 450 metres planned over five to seven days.  Samples from the Stricklands holes will be air-freighted to XPS in Canada for completion of the metallurgical test work in progress there. After Stricklands, the rig will drill the high priority powerful EM conductors at Investigators and West End. “Outstanding targets” Executive chairman John Prineas said: “We are very excited to be resuming diamond drilling at Mt Alexander this week. “The very strong EM conductors that will be drilled are outstanding targets for massive sulphide mineralisation. “We have never had a false positive EM reading at the Cathedrals Belt, with all conductors of this kind drilled being confirmed as nickel-copper sulphides. “The new conductors are located approximately 500m to 800m north-west of known massive sulphides in the Cathedrals Belt and are the deepest conductors identified in the Belt. “The discovery of new nickel-copper sulphide deposits in these locations would be a major success in our ongoing exploration at Mt Alexander and significantly expand the potential footprint of high-grade mineralisation at the Project.” High priority targets The highest priority targets were identified from DHEM surveys in MAD185 and MAD192. Each of these holes intersected thick mafic-ultramafic units with disseminated nickel-copper sulphides – indicative of a fertile intrusive structure with prospectivity for higher grade mineralisation proximal to the hole. Two conductors modelled with conductivity of 55,550 Siemens and 26,000 Siemens, respectively, were identified from the DHEM survey in MAD192 completed in 2020, as well as another two conductors modelled with conductivity of 33,100 Siemens and 14,225 Siemens, respectively, identified from the DHEM survey in MAD185. These ‘powerful’ off-hole conductors are interpreted to have a massive sulphide source and will be the first conductors to be drilled in this year’s exploration campaign. MLEM survey targeted for Q1 A MLEM survey – a ground-based EM survey – is planned for Q1 2021 over a priority area of E29/548 where deep structures were identified by the MT survey. The MLEM survey will search for conductive bodies at depth that may represent nickel-copper sulphides. This is the first EM survey that has been specially designed to investigate the east-west structures on E29/548. A drill programme for E29/548 will then be prioritised subject to a review of the survey results. Next steps Further drilling, including several stratigraphic holes, is also planned to investigate the geology in the western part of the Cathedrals Belt where paleochannel cover is believed to have limited the effectiveness of surface EM surveys. The drill targets will be adjusted and prioritised based on new drill results and new DHEM survey data. Reverse circulation (RC) drilling is also planned at both the Investigators and Cathedrals Prospects to drill-out the shallow high-grade mineralisation that has already been discovered there. Programmes of Works have been approved by the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS) for the drill-out with 5,000 metres of drilling planned at Investigators and 6,000 metres of drilling planned at Cathedrals. Further RC drilling will also be planned to follow-up targets generated from the regional exploration mentioned above. The precise availability of the RC rig has yet to be confirmed but it expects the rig to be available by March.