Western Mines Group has commenced its 2026 field season with a multi-rig drilling campaign at the Mulga Tank nickel-copper-cobalt-PGE project in Western Australia's Eastern Goldfields. The program aims to expand resources and target high-grade sulphide zones.
Initial work includes completing outstanding holes from last year's phase four program, followed by follow-up and step-out drilling across the Mulga Tank ultramafic complex. A diamond drill hole co-funded by the Western Australian Government's Exploration Incentive Scheme will be deepened by 50 to 100 metres from its current depth of 1437.5 metres, after intersecting broad zones of remobilised massive sulphide.
The company plans nine reverse circulation (RC) holes within the main complex: three to infill between indicated resource areas and six to test extensions beyond the current resource shell. Additional RC holes will target an area that returned a 269-metre intersection grading 0.33% nickel, 144 ppm cobalt and 215 ppm copper from 61 metres.
Seven more RC holes are planned to chase extensions of that mineralisation. Once phase four is complete, drilling will move to the Panhandle area to test a mineralised komatiite sequence, backed by further government funding.
Western Mines reports strong funding from an October capital raise and multiple EIS grants. The Mulga Tank project, located on the under-explored Minigwal Greenstone Belt, hosts Australia's largest nickel sulphide resource with a contained metal inventory of 5.3 million tonnes of nickel, 257,000 tonnes of cobalt, 161,000 tonnes of copper and 1.1 million ounces of platinum and palladium.
