Hi HK,Drilling has already reached 500m below surface so finding...

Hi HK,

Drilling has already reached 500m below surface so finding Ni at depth may be a moot point at this stage unless it is up ?plunge of known deep intersections.

Maybe a link to Barnes et al's paper
Magmatic sulfide ores have a wide range of sulfide contents: from less than a tenth of a percent in some stratiform PGE ores, to pure sulfide in some Ni-Cu deposits (Figure 1).. Almost all unaltered magmatic sulfide ores, regardless of sulfide mode, have a characteristic assemblage of pyrrhotite-pentlandite-chalcopyrite-platinum-group minerals (PGM); an assemblage formed from the cooling and crystallization of a magmatic-derived sulfide matte. Natural mattes, consisting predominantly of Fe, Ni, Cu and S fractionate to form a sequence of phases on cooling. Below ~1100°C, (Ni,Fe)S monosulfide solid solution (mss) crystallizes leaving a Cu-rich sulfide liquid enriched in Pt, Pd and semi-metals (e.g. Te, Bi, As). At ~900°C,......

Many of these concepts are beyond my pay grade but there are some things that I can comment on.

• I highlighted the unaltered magmatic sulfide ores above because Succouth appears to be hydrously (whatever that means) altered and ductilely deformation.  The latter is probably independent of alteration being a late stage event.
• Succouth IMO appears to fall into a disseminated sulphide style of deposit so I am not certain how the term Matte applies.
• There are local high grade Cu and Cu/Ni intersections which appear to be contact related and may fit the matte fractionation model.  Dolerite hosted xenoliths presumably do come from depth - how deep is anybodies guess and a very difficult target to vector in on.
• The efficiency of a matte related process that creates a Cu:Ni ratio of 10:1 (i.e. high copper to nickel) on the scale of what is currently known at Succouth would probably be somewhat unique IMO.  To lose that much Ni from an original 1:1 Cu:Ni ratio means a lot of Ni went somewhere.  Either it wasn't there in the first place or there could be a bonanza (if high grade) of Ni that hasn't been found yet.
• The 2018 paper by Grguric et al. mentions the hydrous nature of disseminated sulphides as being very distinct to Nebo - Babel classic magmatic sulphides.
• Another comment in the paper is that taxite (a hybrid rock unit) rarely lacks sulphides either disseminated or as veins.  Implication sulphides originally present?  Not moved around much? ???
• In my post above are pictures and diagrams of what are probably Cu rich fractionated Sudbury Intrusive Complex veins/ore.  I imagine these are near classic examples as mentioned in the Barnes et al paper.
• "Nickel becomes depleted in more evolved magmas due to olivine crystallization, whereas Cu becomes enriched due to incompatibility in the major crystallizing silicate phases"  From page 6 Barnes et al.  I toss this out as an indication that Cu rich deposits can occur and probably even form a spectrum through to porphyry Cu's from something like Succouth - pure speculation on my part.

Hopefully they find good nickel but given some of the points above it may be a long shot to find anything economic.