Espedalen Update and Assay Results

RNS Number : 9485W

Kendrick Resources PLC

20 April 2023

 

Kendrick Resources Plc
("Kendrick" or the "Company")

 Espedalen Update and Assay Results - Maiden Drill Diamond Drill Programme

Kendrick Resources Plc (LSE: KEN), a mineral exploration and development company with vanadium, nickel and copper projects in Scandinavia is pleased to announce its first set of results from its maiden diamond drill programme over the Stormyra Deposit in Espedalen, Norway.

Highlights

· Hole ES2302 - 6.85% Ni Eq. over 1.25m from 38.20m

· Hole ES2303 - 2.64% Ni Eq. over 3.75m from 44.45m

o  incl. 9.28% Ni Eq. over 0.75m from 47.45m

and 1.53% Ni Eq. over 5.80m from 51.80m

o  incl. 5.33% Ni Eq. over 0.9m from 56.7m

· Hole ES2305 - 1.30% Ni Eq. over 4.60m from 76.70m

o  incl. 2.59% Ni Eq. over 2.10m from 79.20m

· Hole ES2306 - 0.71% Ni Eq. over 10.6m from 96.50m

o  Incl. 2.18% Ni Eq. over 1.70m from 99.20m

o  and 1.03% Ni Eq. over 2.65m from 104.45m

· Ground based magnetic survey completed over the Stormyra deposit and potential southeast extension

Colin Bird, Executive Chairman of Kendrick Resources Plc commented:

 "The first round of results of our drilling programme in Norway, have been very satisfying and have confirmed our belief that there is very high potential for resource confirmation and addition. 

In times when the nickel price is three times higher than when the last work carried out in the region, it is particularly exciting to achieve such results.  We intend to reinterpret the entire database in order to define resource and progress all necessary activities in the mine planning process.

Of additional benefit, of course, is that our potential orebodies are sulphide in nature and thus far less complex and expensive to treat.  Sulphides are in limited supply and new nickel supply will be from laterite resources, which are both complex and expensive."

Drilling Programme and Results

Kendrick's maiden diamond drill programme at the Stormyra Ni-Cu-Co Deposit (see Kendrick's RNS dated: 31 January 2023) was completed on 1 March  2023, ahead of schedule and under budget. The programme, encompassing 19 boreholes, comprising infill, step-out, and exploration holes, spanned a total of 1650 metres (Figure 1 & 2).

Figure 1. Drill Hole Location Map for the Stormyra Deposit, Espedalen, Norway.

Figure 2. Cross section through holes ES2302 and ES2303 displaying the local geology and mineralized intercepts.

A subset of 225 metres was forwarded to ALS Scandinavia AB for processing. After core logging, the selected drillcore intervals were sent to the ALS laboratory in Malå, Sweden for preparation and analysed at ALS Loughrea, Ireland. Significant results for the first 6 drill holes for a total of 77 metres of sampled core are listed in the Table below.

Hole	From	To	Length (m)	Ni (%)	Cu (%)	Co (%)	Ni Eq. (%)
ES2302	38.20	39.45	1.25	5.69	2.15	0.19	6.85
ES2303	44.45	48.2	3.75	2.25	0.73	0.06	2.64
incl.	47.45	48.2	0.75	8.18	1.94	0.20	9.28
ES2303	51.8	57.6	5.80	1.21	0.64	0.04	1.53
incl.	56.7	57.6	0.90	4.55	1.41	0.14	5.33
ES2304	16.7	19.10	2.40	0.23	0.10	0.01	0.29
ES2304	25.5	26.4	0.9	2.82	0.59	0.09	3.21
ES2305	76.7	81.30	4.60	1. 0 9	0. 34	0.0 4	1. 30
incl.	79.2	81.30	2.10	2.24	0.56	0.08	2.59
ES2306	96.5	107.10	10.60	0.51	0.43	0.02	0.71
incl.	99.2	100.90	1.70	1.65	1.03	0.07	2.18
incl.	104.45	107.10	2.65	0.64	0.87	0.02	1.03

Notes:  

1)  Reported intervals are downhole widths.

2)      Reported intervals are calculated for zones assaying > 0.25% Nickel Equivalent and containing less than 3 meters of internal waste.

3)      The Nickel equivalent values are estimated using prevailing metal prices of $22000/t Nickel, $8,800/t Copper and $35,000/t Cobalt and are presented for ease of interval comparison only. Metallurgical factors are assumed to be 100% although the recovery factors for the respective metals may vary significantly.

4)      The Nickel equivalent values may differ slightly due to rounding.

Figure 3. Core Photo of the start of the first mineralized interval in ES2303 at 44.45 m with sample boundaries marked and intervals labelled with assay grades rounded to two decimal places.

Magnetic Survey

The drilling was followed by a ground based magnetic survey over the Stormyra deposit and potential south easterly extension to the known mineralisation. The mineralisation is rich in pyrrhotite and hence highly magnetic, while the surrounding gabbro, leucogabbro and anorthosite host rocks are not. A total of 56 line kilometres with 20 meter line spacing was surveyed to test if the known Stormyra mineralization can be picked up with this method and if any local thickening or an extension can be identified. Interpretation of the results is ongoing and will provide drill targets for follow up drilling.

Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC)

The diamond drilling program was executed by Arctic Drilling AS. The rig was aligned using a DeviSight rig aligner and the hole was surveyed with a DeviFlex Rapid at 3m intervals after the completion of a hole. Collar coordinates were taken from the Devisight rig aligner which uses both types of navigation satellites (Glonass and GPS) and had an average accuracy of <1m.

The NQ2 sized core from the diamond drill programme was logged, marked, and photographed, and RQD and magnetic susceptibility measurements were taken by experienced geologists and technicians from EMX royalty.

The drill core was sampled at minimum 0.3 metre up to 2.5 metre intervals and sent to ALS in Malå, Sweden. The samples were cut, and the split (½ core or two quarter core) samples were crushed, split, and pulverized (using ALS methods CRU-31, SPL-22Y, PUL-31).

A pulp split was sent to ALS Loughrea, Ireland, an ISO accredited laboratory for assaying, for final chemical analysis using the ALS methods ME-MS61, ME-OG62, and PGM-ICP23. Standards, blanks and duplicates were inserted regularly in the sample stream and checks were done for Nickel and Copper.

One standard returned values over 2 standard deviation (2SD) and the sample and adjacent sample batches were re-assayed and returned values within 2SD in the second run.

This announcement contains information which, prior to its disclosure, was inside information as stipulated under Regulation 11 of the Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019/310 (as amended).

For additional information please contact:
Kendrick Resources Plc: Chairman	Tel: [phone] Colin Bird
Novum Securities	Tel: [phone]
Financial Adviser Joint Broker	David Coffman / George Duxberry Jon Bellis
Shard Capital Partners LLP Joint Broker	Tel: [phone] Damon Heath / Isabella Pierre

Qualified Person:

The technical information contained in this announcement has been reviewed, verified, and approved by Colin Bird, CC.ENG, FIMMM, South African and UK Certified Mine Manager and Director of Kendrick Resources plc, with more than 40 years' experience mainly in hard rock mining.

About Kendrick Resources Plc

Kendrick Resources Plc is a mineral exploration and development company with projects primarily based across Scandinavia. The principal of its business is to explore the opportunities within the natural resources sector with a focus on battery, base, and precious metals including but not limited to vanadium and nickel. In doing so, the Company is looking to build a long term energy metals business in Scandinavia which delivers energy metals to Europe to help enable its renewable energy transformation by building a top tier energy metals production business.

The Espedalen Project

The Espedalen Project is located approximately 50km north-west of Lillehammer in southern central Norway, 3 hours drive north of Oslo. The project is well served with transport infrastructure being accessible by tarmac roads and is close to rail links to ports in southern Norway and to Glencore's Nikkelverk nickel refinery located 350km to the south.

The known nickel mineralisation on the Espedalen Project is hosted within differentiated mafic and ultramafic bodies which have intruded anorthositic country rocks collectively referred to as the Espedalen Complex and range in age from 1698 - 1250 Ma. This age range is similar to the age of the rocks hosting the giant Voisey's Bay nickel deposit in Labrador, Canada. Further evidence supporting the analogy between Espedalen and Voisey's Bay are tectonic plate reconstructions which place southern Norway in relatively close proximity during the time of formation of Voisey's Bay and with the two regions undergoing similar tectonic developments.

Mining in the Espedalen area dates from 1666. Total production from the Espedalen region is estimated at 100,000t @ 1.0% Ni, 0.4% Cu and 0.06% Co. Significant exploration has been undertaken in the area. The majority and most recent work having been completed by Falconbridge Limited and Blackstone Ventures Limited having completed 134 drill holes across the Espedalen project area, defining significant accumulations of nickel sulphides at the Stormyra and Dalen prospects and generating numerous other quality targets.

In 2009, Blackstone published a NI 43-101 report detailing Inferred Mineral Resources at the Stormyra and Dalen  prospects. Blackstone relinquished the Espedalen Project in 2011 following the preceding financial crisis. ASX listed Drake Resources Limited (now renamed Ragnar Metals Limited) acquired the Espedalen Project in 2012. Drake refined the Mineral Resources at Stormyra (1.16Mt @ 1% Ni, 0.42% Cu & 0.04% Co) and Dalen (7.8Mt @ 0.28% Ni, 0.12% Cu & 0.02% Co) prospects in accordance with JORC (2012).

In addition to defining JORC (2012) compliant mineral resources at Stormyra and Dalen, Drake identified 10 prospects where drilling by Blackstone had intersected at least 5m @ >1% Ni, which were never followed up. A detailed compilation of all past mineral exploration and drilling data and recognised that the Stormyra Mineral Resource is not closed off and a number of intersections warrant follow up drilling, to determine if the Mineral Resource can be expanded, including:

· 21.1m @ 1.75% Ni, 0.66% Cu & 0.06% Co from 64m in hole ES2005-20

· 7.1m @ 2.68% Ni, 1.26% Cu & 0.08% Ni from 29.3m in hole ES2005-22

· 14.6m @ 1.74% Ni, 0.79% Cu & 0.06% Co from 80.4m in hole ES2004-09

The Stormyra Mineral Resource contains a high-grade core, with drill intersections of up to 2.9% Ni. The high-grade core is not fully defined by drilling. Additional investigation of this high-grade core is warranted along with drill testing a ground geophysical conductor, directly associated with the nickel mineralisation, which extends 500m to the south-east of the currently defined limits of the Stormyra Mineral Resource.

 

END

 

 

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