British nickel miner African Eagle Resources, said on Thursday it discovered deposits of nickel sulphide and platinum group elements (PGEs) at Dutwa, its flagship mining operation in Tanzania.
Only in January, the company announced it had achieved advances in the development of a bankable feasibility study on the Tanzanian Dutwa Nickel project.
African Eagle CEO Trevor Moss, said the company had long known about the significance of Dutwa’s laterite deposits.
However, the existence of nickel and PGEs in sulphides (mineralisation) in the strata closely underlying these deposits is additional proof of the overall strong point of Dutwa.
The company’s flagship project is the Dutwa Nickel project in Tanzania. Dutwa is located about 25km south of Lake Victoria and 100km east of Mwanza within greenstone gold belts which hosts many of Tanzania’s operating and developing gold mines.
“We are planning to implement a cost- effective exploration programme to explore and quantify the extent of the sulphide mineralisation and to begin to define what may be another aspect of the potential nickel province,” Moss said.
“During the resource drilling programme, conducted between 2008 and 2012, at the Dutwa nickel laterite ore bodies, it was company procedure for all the drill holes to extend through the laterite horizon and ensure delineation and to terminate in the underlying bedrock.”
Moss said an assessment of the bedrock intersections exposed many holes with raised nickel and PGE values which seemed to be in conflict with the known laterite mineralisation.
A recent re-testing of the samples indicated the presence of sulphide mineralisation.
The company is now intending to start a project of geophysical surveys, including electromagnetic and induced polarisation.
This is to “delineate” the present degree of the known mineralisation at another project, Wamangola, and to define additional areas for drill testing.
African Eagle is a nickel development and exploration company listed on the London AIM and Johannesburg AltX stock exchanges.
