• Blackstone Minerals (ASX:BSX) has commenced drilling at Ta Cuong, using electromagnetic (EM) plates to test new massive sulfide vein (MSV) targets for high impact drilling over the coming months;
• The drilling at Ta Cuong sees Blackstone continue its aggressive exploration program with multiple rigs targeting MSV prospects analogous to the recently discovered Ban Chang prospect and the flagship Ban Phuc orebody;
• Ta Cuong is 6km along strike from Ban Chang and proximal to a major regional structure that is also close to the Ban Phuc and Ban Chang prospects;
• Drilling by previous owners did not target geophysical anomalies, however Blackstone has used it’s highly successful, in-house geophysics team to define new targets at Ta Cuong for high impact drill testing;
• Blackstone’s recent assaying of historic drill holes (previously unassayed) from Ta Cuong returned the following significant results:

BKh18-02 15.6m @ 0.66% Ni, 0.6% Cu, 0.04% Co & 0.31g/t PGE 1 from 45.9m

incl. 0.6m @ 1.95% Ni, 4.47% Cu, 0.12% Co & 0.66g/t PGE from 51.7m

BKh18-03 5.0m @ 0.84% Ni, 0.59% Cu, 0.05% Co & 0.87g/t PGE from 150.0m

incl. 2.55m @ 1.43% Ni, 0.86% Cu, 0.09% Co & 0.78g/t PGE from 150.45m

¹ Platinum (Pt) + Palladium (Pd) + Gold (Au)

• Ta Cuong is the Company’s second high priority MSV prospect within Blackstone’s portfolio of 25 MSV prospects to be systematically tested with modern techniques;
• A recently purchased fourth drill rig will follow the geophysics crew throughout the Ta Khoa nickel sulfide district, testing high priority EM targets generated from 25 MSV prospects including Ban Chang, Ta Cuong, Ban Khoa and King Snake;
• Drilling continues at the King Cobra Discovery zone (KCZ) and Ban Chang;
• The current Scoping Study is focused on downstream processing to produce nickel sulfate for the lithium-ion battery industry with the maiden resource on track for completion in Q3, CY20;

Blackstone Minerals’ Managing Director Scott Williamson commented:

“We are pleased to announce drilling has commenced at Ta Cuong, our second MSV prospect. Based on geological similarities and now with some exciting EM plates to target, we believe it has the potential to deliver similar results to Ban Chang and Ban Phuc.

“We continue to systematically test our 25 MSV prospects and with our in-house geophysics crew and Blackstone-owned drill rigs, we can cost effectively explore this globally significant nickel sulfide district using modern geophysical techniques.

“We see potential to increase future annual nickel production from the Ta Khoa Nickel-Cu-PGE project through targeting high-grade MSV to complement the base load nickel sulfide feed from the bulk open pit mining scenario we are currently modelling at Ban Phuc and King Cobra.”

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