Shares in Chalice Mining Ltd (ASX: CHN) are up this morning following news from the company's Julimar nickel-copper-platinum element project. The Chalice Mining share price is currently $7.13 – 2.15% higher than its previous closing price.
The latest news from Chalice is of more high-grade assay results from a step-out drilling program, further defining the Julimar project's mineralisation.
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What were the findings?
Today, Chalice declared initial assay results from a drilling program at its Julimar project's Gonneville intrusion have found significant high-grade mineralisation.
The company reported results from 75 new drill holes. They found:
- 298 mineralised intervals (more than 4 metres wide and more than 0.3 grams of palladium per tonne cut-off grade)
- 215 high-grade platinum group element intervals (more than 2 metres wide and more than 1 gram of palladium per tonne cut-off grade), including:
- 53 high-grade palladium-nickel-copper intervals (more than 2 metres wide, more than 1 gram of palladium per tonne and more than 0.5% nickel and copper cut-off grade)
Chalice is expecting to get results from another 137 drill holes back within the next 9 weeks. The drilling program is ongoing.
About Chalice's Julimar project
The Julimar project is just 70km north-east of Perth, Western Australia.
A maiden mineral resource estimate for the project's Gonneville discovery is expected in the final quarter of this year.
Additionally, the Gonneville discovery is seemingly part of a roughly 26km-long intrusive complex named the Julimar complex. Chalice has identified several highly prospective targets along the complex, but they haven't been drill tested yet.
Chalice expects to begin exploration, resource definition, and environmental baselining and studies at Julimar during the current financial year.
Commentary from management
Chalice's managing director Alex Dorsch said:
These latest results confirm continuous zones of high-grade sulphide mineralisation, as well as a large oxide / disseminated sulphide footprint…
Step-out drilling is continuing to test the extent of the Gonneville intrusion in this direction. Our understanding of the geology and metallogenesis of the deposit continues to improve as we gather more data.
Concurrently with the 7-rig resource drill-out, we are also progressing a comprehensive metallurgical testwork program on both the sulphide and oxide mineralisation at Gonneville.
Chalice Mining share price snapshot
Since being crowned one of the ASX's best performing mining shares in financial year 2021, the Chalice share price has slid 5.9%.
However, it's still 62% higher than it was at the start of 2021. It has also gained a whopping 658% since this time last year.
The company has a market capitalisation of around $2.5 billion, with approximately 346 million shares outstanding.
