Dreadnought Resources Ltd (ASX: DRE) stock remains frozen after the miner requested a trading halt today.
The ASX All Ords mining stock is currently worth 4.1 cents per share.
Dreadnought told the ASX it wanted the trading halt "pending a material release regarding exploration results" at its Mangaroon project in the Gascoyne Region of Western Australia.
The company requested that the trading halt remain in place until it made an announcement, or until the commencement of trading on Friday (whichever comes first).
Before news of the trading halt came through, Dreadnought released another announcement relating to Mangaroon.
Let's take a look.
Dreadnought stock on hold as investors await major news
While we await those exploration results, Dreadnought had other news to report to the market today.
The company has commenced a new Ni-Cu-PGE drilling program at its Mangaroon project.
Ni-Cu-PGE is an abbreviation for nickel, copper, and platinum group elements.
Mangaroon is a 5,300 sq km site containing multiple minerals including gold, rare earths, nickel, copper, and platinum group elements.
The Ni-Cu-PGE component of the project is subject to an earn-in agreement with First Quantum Minerals (TSE: FM).
First Quantum is fully funding the new drilling program, which involves five drill holes.
The drilling is targeting five EM conductors at the 'Money Intrusion' site.
Dreadnought says the conductors are "consistent with high tenor, massive and net textured sulphide bodies" and "significantly stronger" than those targeted in a first-pass drilling program last year.
The miner explained:
Conductors at the Bookathanna North target are up to 37,000S which is significantly higher than the 160-200S conductors tested in the 2022 drill program.
The 2022 program intersected net textured to brecciated sulphides in 9 holes and the Bookathanna North conductor is interpreted to represent a massive sulphide accumulation in a shallow keel position.
Dreadnought said the new drilling program would take one to two weeks to complete.
The company hopes to release assay and downhole EM results in October.
Dreadnought says fertile Ni-Cu-PGE sulphide systems are extremely rare, and the Money Intrusion "has already been proven to contain high tenor magmatic Ni-Cu-PGE mineralisation".
What did management say?
Dreadnought's Managing Director, Dean Tuck, commented:
With Rare Earth Resource drilling at Mangaroon coming to a close, we are excited to return to the highly prospective Ni-Cu-PGE targets defined at Bookathanna North and High Range with our partners First Quantum Minerals.
Dreadnought is excited to return to exploring for nickel, copper and gold across our project portfolio for the remainder of 2023 whilst our Resource and study preparation work on the rare earths advances in the background.
Nickel and copper are expected to play a key role in the world's decarbonisation.
Nickel is used in the cathodes of lithium-ion batteries.
Copper is essential in renewable energy systems, some of which require 12 times the amount of copper used in traditional electric energy systems.
Dreadnought stock performance snapshot
The Dreadnought share price has fallen 59% in the year to date and 66% over the past 12 months.
