The Zone 29 deposit is located approximately 4 kilometres to the west of Carnilya Hill and 20 kilometres east of Kambalda.
Nickel sulphide mineralisation was originally discovered by BHP in the early 1970's and over the following 20 years sporadic exploration was conducted by BHP and WMC.
View Resources acquired the resources as part of the Carnilya Hill Project purchase and immediately conducted validation drilling and independent resource evaluation and mine pre-feasibility study. This work supported development of Zone 29 as an underground mine.
View Resources commenced underground development at Zone 29 in mid 2004 with mining operations being suspended in December 2005.
Geology
The ore has undergone folding and faulting and is in a stratigraphically overturned position. Mineralisation displays dislocations and thickness variations consistent with cross strike fault offsetting and attenuation. Ore body dip is variable but generally averages 50 degrees to the south. The ore is up to 3 metres thick. The massive sulphides grade up to 14% nickel.
Mineralisation commences at the surface and continues at depth in several disconnected pods. Figures 1 and 2 illustrate the poddy nature of the mineralisation.
An east facing stylised cross section interpretation of the Zone 29 mineralisation is shown in Figure 1.
The Zone 29 East nickel resource occurs within a series of ore pods with a total of 61,100 tonnes at 3.0% nickel (1,800 tonnes contained nickel).
No reserve has been estimated from these resources.
Figure 1: Zone 29 Ore body Geology Cross Section
Figure 2: Zone 29 Project - Longitudinal Section showing the location of drillhole intercepts into the Zone 29 East position.
History of Operations
Statutory approvals to commence mining operations were granted in December 2003 with commencement of the boxcut and site infrastructure in February 2004.
Deliveries of ore from Zone 29 commenced in August 2004 from the 1303 level. Until mining operations were suspended in December 2005, the Zone 29 orebody produced 68,048t at an average head grade of 2.98% nickel.
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