Horizon adds huge nickel resource to Kalgoorlie gold operations

Horizon Minerals has released an updated mineral resources summary that highlights a massive nickel boost from its recent merger with Poseidon Nickel, which has added a huge spread of nickel icing to its Kalgoorlie golden cake.

Some 422,000 tonnes of nickel metal now bolster the company’s mineral portfolio, which also includes 1.8 million ounces of gold scattered across a plethora of goldfields deposits. The deposits include several currently being mined so the company can benefit from the surging gold price of US$3316 (A$5168) per ounce.

The merger with Poseidon has delivered a raft of promising nickel projects to Horizon. The Black Swan project stands out among a group, which includes the Silver Swan and Golden Swan deposits, the Silver Swan tailings resource and the Lake Johnston and Windarra projects.

The resource summary also details a solid addition of 20.2 million ounces of silver, 104,000t of zinc and 7800t of cobalt.

Black Swan’s mineralisation occurs within the Black Swan Komatiite complex, which includes several deposits such as Silver Swan, Cygnet and Black Duck. Black Swan accounts for 170,900t of nickel metal, coupled with a further 7800t in stockpiles at the project, for a total 178,700t of nickel at an overall grade of 0.58 per cent.

The Silver Swan resource consists of four narrow, high-grade shoots along the basal ultramafic contact of the Black Swan Komatiite, for a combined 12,940t of contained nickel at an impressive grade of 9.5 per cent.

The company’s Golden Swan nickel sulphide deposit is also within the Black Swan Komatiite complex, some 450 metres south of Silver Swan. Three mineralised lenses strike north-south and dip steeply east to vertical, with all three near to a depth of 1 kilometre.

A 6257t nickel resource presents at a solid 3.91 per cent grade.

Previous owner Poseidon Nickel undertook a drilling program at the Silver Swan tailings impoundment in 2018 and delineated a resource comprising 6201t of nickel going 0.92 per cent.

The Lake Johnston project contains the noteworthy Maggie Hays deposit, which, among its 2.6Mt of material, includes 300,000t of “massive” mineralisation grading north of 3 per cent. Its overall resource consists of 52,000t of nickel at a 1.49 per cent grade.

The project comes with its own 1.5-million-tonnes per annum concentrator, which will be a handy addition in the event the nickel market fires up again and it becomes a case of game-on. A previous assessment of concentrate produced at the site indicated a quality smeltable product was produced with no expected penalties.

Its Windarra project comprises the Mt Windarra area that has economic nickel mineralisation present at the base of the Windarra ultramafics, a 100-300m thick sequence of ultramafic lava flows, overlain by basalts.

The nickel tenor of sulphides found within the ultramafic rocks usually grades between a stunning 8 to 16 per cent. Previous mining has taken place at several of the deposits. The last significant discovery by Poseidon was at the Cerberus prospect.

Windarra has a total estimated resource of 4.35Mt at 1.64 per cent nickel for 71,500t of metal.

Horizon also now holds the Nimbus silver-zinc resource, containing a high-grade component running at 774 grams per tonne silver for 6.4M ounces and 33,000t of zinc grading at a stellar 12.8 per cent.

It is very pleasing to have completed the merger with Poseidon Nickel, bringing in the surface infrastructure including the Black Swan plant to refurbish and convert to a gold plant, but also the substantial nickel resource base. We also look forward to increasing our gold resources through further M&A opportunities and organically through drilling, which will commence this current quarter.

One of the prime benefits to come to Horizon, out of the merger, was grasping the mothballed Black Swan processing facility, near Kalgoorlie, which the company will repurpose as a gold plant. Horizon recently awarded ASX-listed GR Engineering with the scope to complete engineering studies on the plant to have it roar back to life and process the gold-bearing ore from its myriad deposits in the region.

The coveted piece of infrastructure was used to process nickel before it was placed on care and maintenance.

The refurbished 2.2Mt per annum processing facility could potentially deliver Horizon a 100,000-ounce-a-year gold operation.

The plan saves the company some significant capital costs, given management believes the cost to replace the existing Black Swan infrastructure would be about $150M in today’s money. All Black Swan’s regulatory approvals are in place.

Not wanting to miss out on the sky-high gold price on offer, Horizon has charged into action to toll treat ore from two of its key gold deposits – Boorara, near Kalgoorlie’s Super Pit, and Phillips Find, north of Coolgardie.

The first 37,000t of ore from its Phillips Find joint venture and 50,604t from its Boorara mine led to the company banking a stack of cash last month.

The joint venture shared in $7.9M received from the processed Phillips Find parcel, while the Boorara ore generated $4.95M in revenue prior to treatment costs.

Horizon is going gangbusters with its gold operations at present. If nickel was to revert to flavour of the month status in the near future, the company would elevate to a whole new level.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au