Widige Nickel sees its Widgie South project area (comprising Widgie 3, Widgie Townsite, Gillett and Gillett North) as a key mining centre within the Company’s nickel portfolio given its significant nickel endowment of 71,800 t Ni (Indicated and Inferred Resources).
The area is located on Mining Lease M15/94, 1km to the south of the Widgiemooltha township. Access is via the Coolgardie-Norseman Rd, 63km south of Coolgardie.
Widgie South covers a significant land holding within the Widgiemooltha Nickel Province between the historic Spargoville nickel mines to the north and the currently operating Cassini nickel mine (Wyloo Metals) to the south.
The project area lies at the north-eastern flank of the Widgiemooltha Dome, a double plunging anticlinal structure cored by a deformed granitoid. The pre-deformation stratigraphy at Widgie South consists of a basaltic footwall and ultramafic hangingwall with minor sediment units found within the footwall basalt unit. Felsic intrusives (porphyries) are only found locally at Widgie 3 and range from 1m-10m in thickness that run parallel to the basal contact.
Nickel mineralisation was discovered in the Widgie South Trend area of the Mt Edwards Project in about 1967, shortly after the first significant discovery of nickel mineralisation at Kambalda in the previous year.
The close proximity of the three known resources: Widgie 3, Gillett and Widgie Townsite provides the opportunity for shared infrastructure reducing capital costs.
Widgie 3
Exploration at Widgie 3 has confirmed thick intercepts of high-grade nickel sulphide and PGE mineralisation which remains open at depth with increasing grade interpreted down plunge. The drilling results received so far will go towards a resource update with increased resource confidence.
Notable significant nickel intercepts from drilling include:
23MERCD073 15.47m @ 3.17% Ni, 0.27% Cu, 0.04% Co, 1.51g/t 3PGE from 301.00m
Incl 6.81m @ 5.92% Ni, 0.50% Cu, 0.07% Co, 2.58g/t 3PGE from 309.66m
23MERCD079 27.70m @ 1.26% Ni, 0.11% Cu, 0.02% Co, 0.50g/t 3PGE from 379.00m
Incl 2.39m @ 6.56% Ni, 0.68% Cu, 0.09% Co, 2.12g/t 3PGE from 404.29m
23MERCD080 7.74m @ 2.94% Ni, 0.28% Cu, 0.04% Co, 1.24g/t 3PGE from 369.26m
Incl 5.75m @ 3.76% Ni, 0.36% Cu, 0.05% Co, 1.52g/t 3PGE from 369.70m
Gillett
Gillett was only discovered in 2008, given it was a blind discovery without any surface expression.
In January 2023, the Gillett deposit’s Mineral Resource expanded by 20 per cent to 1.56 million tonnes at 1.5 per cent nickel for 23,400 tonnes contained nickel between 80 and 350 metres below surface. Notably at the same time, 60 per cent of Gillett mineral resource upgraded to the higher confidence Indicated category Resource now quantifies a Palladium and Platinum endowment with Pd (0.17g/t) and Pt (0.08g/t) (contained metal equating to 8,515oz Pd and 4,007oz Pt).
Significant opportunity for further Resource growth through extension and connection with the Gillett North discovery.
The Gillett Nickel deposit is located on Mining Lease M15/94, approximately 3km south-southeast of the Widgiemooltha Township. Widgie holds the nickel rights for Mining Lease M15/94 with the underlying tenure held by Mincor Resources NL. Gillett is one of three nickel deposits located on M15/94, collectively named the Widgie South Trend (Widgie Townsite, Gillett and Widgie 3).
The Gillett Mineral Resource is a nickel sulphide deposit hosted within an ultramafic package dipping steeply (75o to 85o) to the west. Mineralisation at Gillett occurs over a strike length of more than 1km in a talc-carbonate altered ultramafic on or near a basal contact with a basalt.
There is a strong foliation developed parallel to the basal contact and one interpretation is that the basal contact has been thrust from the main contact that hosts the Widgie 3 and Widgie Townsite nickel sulphide deposits.
The Gillett deposit has been structurally modified with the mineralisation sitting in the ultramafic of an overturned limb under a hanging wall of basalt. The nickel sulphide mineralisation has been being partly controlled by later stage quartz carbonate veining.
Widgie Townsite
In July 2023, results from exploration revealed significant nickel mineralisation intercepts at Widgie Townsite.
The results confirmed a high-grade nickel discovery on the eastern limb of Widgie Townsite syncline with further drilling to deliver increased resource confidence for future mining studies at the deposit.
Exploration has established that high-grade continuity at Widgie Townsite extends at depth whilst also identifying new mineralisation in a zone known as Eastern Transitional.
Significant nickel intercepts from exploration includes:
Widgie Townsite MEDD061 30.85m @ 1.59% Ni from 435m Incl. 13.43m @ 2.74% Ni from 449.7m And 3.36m @ 3.27% Ni from 471.3m
23MERCD039 14.0m @ 2.73% Ni from 509m Incl. 11.03m @ 3.19% Ni from 511m
23MERCD038 1.04m @ 5.49% Ni from 479.6m
Eastern Transitional 23MERCD039 43.0m @ 0.69% Ni from 65m
23MERCD038 22.0m @ 1.02% Ni from 36m
Figure 2 Widgie Townsite long section looking Northeast - Significant intercepts shown
