Lunnon Metals Limited (ASX: LM8) (the Company or Lunnon Metals) is pleased to provide an update on the Long South Gap exploration program.
The Long South Gap is hosted on the Company's Silver Lake-Fisher (SLF) project in the heart of the famous Kambalda nickel district. It represents a significantly underexplored 5.8km2 area immediately adjacent to the Company's historical Silver Lake mine to the west and the highly endowed Kambalda Dome.
LONG SOUTH GAP 3D SEISMIC 'CUBE' Processing and analysis of the 3D seismic survey data collected in late 2023 has now been completed by external consultants Southern Geoscience Consultants Pty Ltd (SGC). Due to the size and quantum of data and the length of time it was taking to complete the process, the Company has prioritised the western and northern area of the full 5.8km2 3D seismic data (referred to as the 'Cube') immediately adjacent to the Long Operation (owned by Wyloo Pty Ltd (Wyloo)). The key geological features assessed were the basal Lunnon Basalt-ultramafic contact (the traditional and main prospective nickel sulphide contact) and any faults that could potentially disrupt or displace that surface.
A previously unrecognised and potentially nickeliferous channel feature has been identified which is 1km long and has a width of between 100m and 150m. The channel feature starts at 670m below surface, plunges over a 1km at 40-degree towards 135-degree and was identified based on an inflection in the interpreted basal contact. This position is almost exactly halfway between the McLeay channel (located at Wyloo's Long Operation) and the Silver Lake channels (located on Lunnon Metals tenure). Down plunge, to the east of the Alpha Island fault (a significant post-mineralisation event fault), this potential channel feature is offset approximately 700m from the projection of Wyloo's McLeay channel. The implied offset along the Alpha Island fault accords with documented offsets along the same fault elsewhere at St Ives.v
Managing Director, Edmund Ainscough, commenting said: 'It has been a mammoth exercise to process, analyse and then interpret the wealth of data that the 3D seismic survey generated in 2023. To achieve the best possible outcome in the shortest time, it made sense to prioritise the area closest to Wyloo's highly endowed Long Operation at the northern end of the 'Cube' and it is exciting to report the identification of a new, previously unrecognised channel. However, the nickel sector is a very different place now compared to when we started this program in 2023. The cost-cutting exercises we have implemented, coupled with not needing to complete any further surface nickel drilling at Foster and Baker, sees our cash balance remaining strong. In the fullness of time, when conditions improve, we can quickly pivot to unlocking the potential of the Long South Gap, remembering that the prospective komatiitebasalt contact has never been tested in this large area immediately adjacent to over 460,000t of past nickel metal production1 '.
These outcomes represent an exciting development in the discovery effort at Long South Gap. The Company remains confident in the potential for a significant discovery in this area and the results of this latest analysis of the 3D seismic data are another step forward in defining what appears to be an exciting target at depth. However, nickel market sentiment has deteriorated significantly since this program began in 2023 and the Company has previously communicated its intention to pause new surface nickel exploration activities. This strategy ensures that cash is preserved and enables Lunnon Metals to progress low cost, near surface exploration for high-grade gold opportunities, confident in the knowledge that all necessary nickel surface drilling at its cornerstone nickel assets, the Baker deposit and Foster mine, is complete. Accordingly, despite having reached in-principle agreement with Wyloo to access waste rock from the Long Operation stockpiles for the purposes of drill causeway construction on the surface of Lake Lefroy, to facilitate more cost effective deep diamond drilling, the Company has chosen to postpone initiation of that causeway program for the foreseeable future. When sentiment improves the Company can easily commence these activities as disturbance approval has already been received from the regulator. In the interim, low cost initiatives to extract as much information as possible from the 3D seismic Cube will be investigated, including potentially using machine learning techniques to refine existing targets and hopefully define new ones.
Contact:
Edmund Ainscough
Managing Director
Tel: +61 8 6424 8848
Email: info@lunnonmetals.com.au
COMPETENT PERSON'S STATEMENT & COMPLIANCE
Any information in this announcement that relates to nickel and gold geology, nickel Mineral Resources, Exploration Targets and Exploration Results, is based on, and fairly represents, information and supporting documentation prepared by Mr. Aaron Wehrle, who is a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM). Mr. Wehrle is a full-time employee of Lunnon Metals Ltd, a shareholder and holder of employee options/performance rights; he has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity that he is undertaking to qualify as Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves. Mr. Wehrle consents to the inclusion in this announcement of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears. Any information in this announcement that relates to 3D seismic data acquisition methodology, QAQC, processing, visualisation, integration and interpretation methodology, is based on, and fairly represents, information and supporting documentation prepared by Mr. Ian James, who is a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG). Mr. James is a full-time employee of Southern Geoscience Consultants Pty Ltd (SGC); he has sufficient experience that is relevant to the application of 3D seismic surveys in exploration of the type of deposit under consideration and to the activity that he is undertaking to qualify as Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves. Mr. James consents to the inclusion in this announcement of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears
LUNNON METALS LIMITED 
