After spending much of the day in the red, the Chalice Mining Ltd (ASX: CHN) share price has bounced back in afternoon trade.
At the time of writing, the mineral exploration company's shares are up 4% to $9.09.
Why is the Chalice Mining share price charging higher?
The catalyst for the rise in the Chalice Mining share price today was the release of an announcement this afternoon.
According to the release, the Government of Western Australia has approved the stage two Conservation Management Plan (CMP) for initial low-impact drilling at the Hartog and Baudin targets at its 100%-owned Julimar Ni-Cu-PGE Project.
The release explains that the CMP sets out strict environmental requirements governing initial low-impact drilling activity at the priority targets located within the Julimar State Forest. The good news is that no mechanised clearing of vegetation is required to access drill sites and vegetation disturbance will be avoided where possible by using existing recreational tracks.
Chalice also highlights that it has conducted extensive flora and fauna surveys covering an area of ~5,700ha to inform the company's drilling program. A key condition of the CMP includes monitoring by qualified fauna observers throughout the program to ensure there is no direct impact to wildlife. Furthermore, cultural heritage surveys and advice received from Yued and Whadjuk Traditional Owner groups have confirmed that no cultural heritage sites will be affected by the drilling program.
If all goes to plan with the drilling, Chalice could grow the already incredible mineral resource of the Julimar Ni-Cu-PGE Project.
In November, the company defined a tier-1 scale, pit-constrained maiden resource for the Gonneville deposit at Julimar.
The maiden indicated and inferred, pit constrained, mineral resource estimate was for 10Moz of palladium, platinum, and gold, 530kt of nickel, 330kt of copper and 53kt of cobalt. This makes it the largest nickel sulphide discovery in over 20 years and the largest platinum-group elements (PGE) discovery in Australian history.
Management believes that this establishes the foundation for a world-class green metals project.
