MAN’s Drilling Now 7 days Away - 30km from Chalice Mining

Mandrake Resources (ASX:MAN) starts drilling on the 14th June - just 7 days from now.

MAN will be drilling targets just 30km from Chalice Mining’s multi-billion dollar world class Julimar nickel-copper-PGE discovery.

MAN is currently capped at ~ $94M ahead of drilling - just a fraction of Chalice’s $3.1BN.

We invested in MAN in March this year, in anticipation of MAN’s near term drilling right near the $3.1BN Chalice.

MAN is going to drill three conductor plates identified by fixed loop EM surveys, which to date have shown promising rock chip samples and strong geophysical signs...

Drilling should take about three weeks and we will hopefully get reports of visible metals in the drill cores... then it will be another three weeks until we get the big news from the assay lab - and hopefully it’s a hit.

Another explorer in the region Caspin Resources drilled a few weeks ago, and went up 378% over a few weeks.

We are hoping MAN delivers a similar result over drilling, and beyond that hopefully an outsized return on a discovery.

Beyond the targets being drilled next week, today MAN confirmed a pipeline of drill targets - revealing two new highly prospective nickel rich ultramafic bodies.

These bodies are coincident with VTEM anomalies that contain highly anomalous PGE-Ni-Cu geochemistry....

This means MAN is now more than just a one hit wonder and now has a pipeline of exciting drill targets that could be Julimar-style mineralisation.

These targets are still raw and there is a lot of work still to be done, but in any case, this is great news for MAN, as it provides clear targets to work on in the event that near term drilling does not result in a discovery.

MAN has 100% of a 142km2 exploration licence prospective for PGE-Ni-Cu in the exciting Jimperding Metamorphic Belt, 70km north east of Perth.

We invested in MAN in March this year, in anticipation of MAN’s near term drilling right near the $3.1BN Chalice. MAN is capped at $94M - just a fraction of Chalice’s $3.1BN.

Here is our MAN launch article when we first invested, and the share price was 12c.

Last week we updated readers that MAN’s drilling approvals had been secured and a drilling date of 14 June had been set.

With drilling now just days away, having been months in the making, we think any successful drill hits early next week could lead to a swift re-rate of MAN, obviously keeping in mind that exploration is reisky and a bad result will re-rate it downwards.

The catalyst: drilling just days away as new targets identified

MAN has completed detailed geological mapping and sampling across its entire Jimperding Project.

The Jimperding Project is only circa 30 kilometres east of Chalice Mining’s multi-billion dollar Julimar PGE-Ni-Cu discovery.

Chalice’s discovery was a company-transforming event, and smaller ASX explorers have rushed into the region in an attempt to find more discoveries.

MAN pegged its ground long before the rush created by Chalice, and is one of the explorers closest to drilling, with a date set for next week.

Today, MAN announced that not only is drilling on track, but it has discovered two more ultramafic bodies at the Jimperding Project with highly anomalous Ni, Cu and Pt values coincident with EM conductors.

This is an exciting development as MAN now has a pipeline of targets for Julimar-style Ni-Cu-PGE mineralisation.

The image below shows MAN’s two new prospects (Tolarno North and Tolarno South), which both sit to the north of MAN’s Newleyine Prospect - which will be drilled next week.

Two new nickel-rich prospects

Today, MAN announced the discovery of two further prospects shown above: Tolarno North and Tolarno South.

Both of these prospects are located on property owned by the same landowner. Discussions are underway to facilitate access to conduct a more detailed assessment.

Importantly, these prospects have not been the subject of previous work, which means they are an open book for MAN to explore.

Here are the key points of MAN’s new prospects:

• Tolarno North and Tolarno South, are coincident with EM anomalies identified by the recently conducted VTEMTM Max airborne electromagnetic survey, further enhancing their prospects.
• Rock chip results at the new Tolarno North prospect of 0.31% Ni, 503ppm Cu and 20ppb Pt confirm the prospect for potential PGE-nickel-copper massive sulphide mineralisation.
• These two prospects had not been identified by existing government mapping.

Our MAN Investment Strategy:

As with most early stage explorers we expect the share price to increase in the lead up to drilling on speculation of a positive result.

We originally invested months ago well before the pre-drill excitement started.

We will aim to take back our initial investment before drilling and take some profit before drilling results are released.

We plan to retain a significant position into the drilling results which are hopefully positive and will significantly re-rate the share price upwards.

Once the results are announced, we will assess and refine our investment strategy depending on if the results are good, average or bad.

MAN has confirmed it will begin drilling on 14th June 2021, just 7 days from now. MAN’s ground sits just 30km from Chalice Mining’s $3 billion dollar Julimar nickel-copper-PGE discovery.

Remember that early stage exploration investment is risky, so always have your own plan and stick to it. Only invest what you can afford to lose, and seek advice from a financial advisor if you are new to all this.

More drill targets coming - what to expect next from MAN

Obviously the big catalyst to come will be next week’s drilling at Newleyine.

However, with the newly identified prospects at Tolarno there should be a large amount of newsflow to come beyond.

Here’s what to expect over the next few months from MAN.

1. The big drilling event: Drilling to start at Newleyine on 14 June.
2. Assay results from drilling: A few weeks later.
3. Detailed mapping and sampling: More detailed mapping and sampling together with ground EM at Tolarno North.
4. Aircore program: Potentially an aircore program to better characterise the geochemistry and generate drill targets.
5. Further work at Tolarno South: Work would include ground EM and an aircore program to better characterise the geochemistry.
6. Potential for short term drilling at Tolarno South: MAN has said the Tolarno South paddock will not be cropped this year which will make it more amenable to drilling in the short term.