AusQuest Limited has accepted the new district-scale Jubilee Lake Nickel-Copper Project, located ~500km east of Kalgoorlie in WA, as a new Exploration Opportunity under the Strategic Alliance Agreement (SAA) between the two companies. Under the terms of the SAA, South32 has exclusive rights to the Company's projects and can earn a 70% interest in each project by spending a total of USD 4.5 million on exploration, with the right to earn an additional 10% interest by completing Pre-Feasibility Studies. The Jubilee Project consists of one granted Exploration Licence and five Exploration Licence applications covering a total area of ~3,200km square.

The Project is situated within a large flood basalt terrane (>4,000km square), close to the south-eastern margin of the Yilgarn Craton, and is centred over the Rodona Shear which shows strong evidence as being the key feeder structure to the surrounding flood basalts. The Rodona Shear, which extends over hundreds of kilometres, is a deep-seated fault system which is clearly evident in both the regional magnetic and gravity data. Mafic/ultramafic intrusions that are associated with feeder structures to flood basalt terranes are considered prime targets for Ni-Cu-PGE sulphide deposits similar to those found at the giant Norilsk deposits in Russia, and more locally at Nebo-Babel (Oz Minerals), located ~300km to the north-east of Jubilee, and possibly at Nova-Bollinger (IGO), ~350km to the south-west.

Modelling of aeromagnetic data over the Jubilee Project has identified a possible chonolith-type intrusion (a horizontal cylindrical body), ~15km in length and coincident with the Rodona Shear, making it a high priority target for Ni-Cu-PGE mineralization. The targets occur at shallow depths (~50m to 100m below the Eucla Basin sediments) and have limited depth extent (~200m to 300m), suggesting that the prime target zone for nickel sulphide mineralisation (near the base of the inferred chonolith) is within reach of standard electromagnetic (EM) techniques. A proposal to rapidly advance this Exploration Opportunity to the drilling stage has been accepted under the SAA.

EM surveys to locate massive nickel sulphide targets within the interpreted chonolith and feeder intrusions are scheduled to start in second quarter of 2022. AusQuest Managing Director Graeme Drew said the inclusion of the province-scale Jubilee Lake Project under the Company's SAA with South32 was an exciting development, adding further depth and momentum to its ongoing exploration programs in Australia, especially for nickel and PGEs.