Continues To Grow Exciting Vietnam Project
Blackstone Minerals Limited (ASX:BSX) continues to achieve drilling success at the King Cobra and Ban Chang prospects, part of its flagship Ta Khoa Nickel- Cu-PGE project in Vietnam.
Successful infill and extensional drilling results at KCZ delivers some of the best intercepts to date and has upgraded confidence in the Ban Phuc Disseminated Sulfide (DSS) deposit.
Managing Director, Scott Williamson, said the Ban Phuc DSS deposit underpins the company’s maiden Indicated Mineral Resource of 44.3Mt @ 0.52% Ni for 229kt Ni and recently announced Scoping Study which demonstrates an economically robust nickel sulphide project to produce downstream Nickel, Cobalt, and Manganese (NCM) precursor products for the Lithium-ion battery industry
Blackstone continues to target Massive Sulphide Vein (MSV) prospects analogous to the previously mined Ban Phuc MSV, where previous owners successfully mined 975kt of high-grade ore at average grades of 2.4% Ni & 1.0% Cu from an average vein width of 1.3m;
Following initial drill hole success at Ban Chang ,which intersected high‐grade massive sulphide nickel over a 1.2km strike length, recent drilling success continues to support the company’s strategy to delineate a maiden resource at Ban Chang to supplement ongoing studies
“Successful infill and extensional drilling at KCZ continues to deliver broad, consistent mineralisation and increases confidence in the compelling metrics presented in our recent Scoping Study. The drilling results reinforce our view that the project benefits from higher grades of the KCZ which can be accessed in the early years,” Mr Williamson said.
“Blackstone will continue to systematically test our 25 MSV prospects, and a maiden resource at the Company’s first such target, Ban Chang, is being targeted for the first quarter of 2021.
“Through the delineation of additional MSV deposits, we see potential to increase annual nickel production and reduce initial capital requirements via a staged approach which would involve Blackstone utilising the existing 450ktpa concentrator at Ta Khoa.”
The company is now advancing the Ta Khoa Project through to a Pre-Feasibility Study, which will contemplate the option to mine higher grade MSV deposits within the Ta Khoa district. The discovery of higher grade MSV deposits have the potential to reduce upfront capital requirements by enabling the Company to restart the existing Ban Phuc concentrator (450ktpa).
Blackstone has commenced metallurgical testing on the Ban Phuc DSS deposit with an aim to develop a flow sheet for a product suitable for the lithium-ion battery industry. In addition, Blackstone Minerals will investigate the potential to develop downstream processing infrastructure in Vietnam to produce a downstream nickel and cobalt product to supply Asia’s growing lithium-ion battery industry.
