Western Mines has received a $250,000 grant from the Western Australian Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme to fund a seismic survey at its Mulga Tank nickel-cobalt-copper-platinum group elements project. The grant is the maximum amount available to junior explorers under the scheme.
The seismic survey will cover 35 square kilometres on the eastern margin of the Yilgarn Craton, 150-200 kilometres northeast of Kalgoorlie. It aims to map the deep architecture of the ultramafic complex within the Minigwal Greenstone Belt, focusing on basal contacts and feeder zones that may host thick, high-grade massive sulphide accumulations.
The survey will use 65 kilometres of active two-dimensional seismic lines spaced 1 kilometre apart, plus 35 kilometres of receiver-only lines at 500-metre spacing to create a pseudo three-dimensional seismic cube. This setup is expected to provide clear imaging beyond 2000 metres depth, revealing the internal structure of the Mulga Tank intrusion.
The program could detect massive sulphide bodies exceeding four metres in thickness, helping to identify high-priority drilling targets. Results will be integrated with existing 3D magnetic and gravity datasets to refine the geological model and de-risk future drilling.
The grant covers 50 per cent of the survey costs, with work expected to begin mid-year. Mulga Tank already hosts a 5.3-million-tonne contained nickel resource, and recent drilling has extended mineralisation at depth. The company has also secured additional ground along the Yilgarn Craton and signed a deal with Magnium Australia to investigate magnesite extraction from the deposit’s near-surface oxide cap.
