The Northwest Pilbara Lithium and Nickel Projects
Sabre’s extensive tenement holding in Western Australia’s highly prospective northwest Pilbara region includes the Sherlock Bay Nickel Project and the Andover East and Andover Northeast lithium prospects (see location, Figure 1).
The Sherlock Bay Project is located 15km-50km east of Roebourne. The northwest Pilbara is a Teir 1 mining jurisdiction with world-class local infrastructure including sealed highways, electrical power, gas and water, airports, commercial multi-user port facilities, accommodation and mining services available.
Figure 1: Sherlock Bay tenements location and geology showing proximity to Andover nickel and lithium projects
Sherlock Bay Nickel Project, Western Australia (SBR 70%)
The Sherlock Bay project is located 50km east of Roebourne in Western Australia’s highly prospective Pilbara region (see location, Figure 1).
Sherlock Bay nickel deposit has a current JORC 2012 Mineral Resource of 24.6Mt @ 0.40% Ni, 0.09% Cu, 0.02% Co (0.47% NiEq*) containing 99,200t Ni, 21,700t Cu, 5,400t Co (117kt NiEq*), including Measured: 12.48Mt @ 0.38% Ni, 0.11% Cu, 0.025% Co; Indicated: 6.1Mt @ 0.59% Ni, 0.08% Cu, 0.022% Co and Inferred: 6.1Mt @ 0.27% Ni, 0.06% Cu, 0.01% Co.
Sabre completed a Scoping Study on the Sherlock Bay nickel deposit in January 2022, based on open pit and underground (sub-level cave) mining and heap-leach processing to produce mixed hydroxide nickel, copper and cobalt products. The Scoping Study highlighted significant cash-flow potential at a nickel price of US$10/lb (US$22,400/t). The Company confirms that it is not aware of any other new information or data that materially affects the information in the Scoping Study release of 27 January 2022.
In 2022 the company completed a (partially WA government EIS funded) 2,414m diamond drilling program which intersected higher-grade to massive nickel (copper, cobalt) bearing sulphides at the intersection of the sulphide mineralised horizon with the contact of the Sherlock mafic/ultramafic Intrusion.
The massive and matrix-breccia sulphide zones intersected and the consistent nickel, copper, cobalt grades, are typical of mafic-intrusive associated deposits such as the Andover nickel sulphide discovery of Azure Minerals (ASX:AZS), 50km to the west of Sherlock Bay (see Figure 1). Andover nickel sulphide deposit has a recently announced Mineral Resource estimate of 6Mt @ 1.11% Ni, 0.47% Cu, 0.05% Co.
The Company recently completed a further drilling program which discovered an extensive new sulphide zone associated with a major electromagnetic (EM) target south-west of the Discovery sulphide resource zone at the Sherlock Bay Nickel Sulphide Project.
All four new diamond drill-holes which tested the EM conductor target intersected massive sulphides within broader semi-massive to stringer sulphide zones. Drilling and downhole EM (DHEM) indicates that the new sulphide discovery extends for a strike-length of at least 500m and is open in all directions, with other exceptionally strong off-hole DHEM conductors yet to be tested.
Sabre also holds an 80% interest in the Sherlock Pool tenement E47/4345 and has seven exclusive EL applications, covering over 300 sq.km over a 20km long structural and intrusive corridor at Sherlock Bay and to the northeast of the Andover project which is highly prospective for nickel sulphides and lithium pegmatites.
The Company has identified potential to significantly expand the nickel sulphide resources at Sherlock Bay. This outcome, combined with the results of ongoing metallurgical programs, will allow Sabre to re-assess the economic viability of the Sherlock Bay Nickel Project and potentially upgrade to a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) on a major new nickel-copper-cobalt sulphide project to supply downstream Class-1 nickel processors and take advantage of the positive outlook for these high-demand battery-metals.
Andover East Lithium Project
Sabre’s extensive tenement holding of over 300 square kilometres (sq.km) in Western Australia’s highly-prospective northwest also includes the Andover East and Andover Northeast lithium prospects. These tenements include similar geological targets to the nearby Andover lithium discovery of Azure Minerals Ltd (ASX:AZS) which has produced drilling intersections of up to 209.4m @ 1.42% Li2O (see Figures 1 and 2).
Figure 2: The Company’s major tenement holdings covering 300km2 east of Andover lithium discovery, on magnetics
The Sabre tenements at Andover East and Andover Northeast include northeast-trending structural corridors and interpreted mafic/ultramafic intrusions. This is a similar geological scenario to the Andover lithium discovery. However, while the lithium pegmatites at Andover outcrop, Sabre’s Andover Northeast and Andover East targets are located under soil/alluvium cover and, as such, have not been previously explored.
Field investigation has revealed a large area of outcropping pegmatites on the eastern side of the Andover East tenements – across a more than 140m wide zone (see location, Figure 1). Sampling of the outcropping pegmatites produced anomalous lithium (Li), cesium (Cs), rubidium (Rb) and gallium (Ga) results, indicating that the outcropping pegmatites may be at the eastern edge of a higher-grade lithium pegmatite zone.
Sampling of pegmatites intersected by diamond drillhole SBDD004 which tested the Sherlock Bay nickel sulphide deposit (Figure 1) also produced highly anomalous lithium, rubidium and cesium results, indicative of lithium-cesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatites and demonstrating that LCT pegmatites are present in the Andover East/Sherlock Bay area.
Using geophysics and follow-up drilling, the Company will target zones of magnetic depletion (detected by drone magnetics) and low density (detected by gravity) within the targeted northeast-trending fault-corridors in the new tenements at Andover East and Andover Northeast (see magnetics image and targets, Figure 2). These areas represent targets for lithium-spodumene bearing pegmatites of similar scale to the neighbouring Andover lithium discovery.
