The Patersons note came on the back of an exploration update on Camelwood, part of its Fisher East project, which generated a negative response from investors.

Reverse circulation drilling returned a hit of 22m at 1.42% nickel from 118m, including 9m at 2.04% nickel from 119m.

A ninth RC hole intersected 1m semi-massive and 9m disseminated sulphide mineralisation from 153m, extending the strike length of mineralisation at Camelwood to at least 700m.

Further RC drilling to the north was continuing.

Meanwhile, diamond drilling continued to intersect massive and disseminated sulphides.

Hits included 1.7m of massive and 2m of disseminated sulphides from 147m, 0.55m massive followed by 2m of disseminated from 126m and 1.7m of massive and 1m of disseminated sulphide from 350.5m.

“These drill holes continue to show the continuity of the nickel sulphide mineralisation at Camelwood, although the thickness of the massive zone is quite variable,” Rox managing director Ian Mulholland said.

“We still have a 100% success rate in hitting nickel sulphide mineralisation in all holes drilled so far.”

While the company’s shares shot up last month on the back of news it had intersected massive sulphides in the first diamond hole at Camelwood, yesterday’s results didn’t draw the same reaction.

The company’s shares closed down 14.4% yesterday to A7.7c.

Other WA nickel explorers also lost ground, including market darling Sirius Resources which fell 0.7% to $4.47 while Heron Resources dipped 3% to 16c.

A diamond drill rig is currently on site, with the company planning drilling to test the new conductor north of Camelwood.

Upcoming drilling will also be focused on testing targets retrieved from down-hole EM surveys.

In a research note, Patersons analyst Rob Brierley noted that Rox appeared to be unfairly sold off.

“Diamond drilling continues to intersect both massive and semi massive nickel mineralisation with assays generally being better than the visuals suggest,” he said.

“Whilst follow-up diamond drilling has encountered lesser widths of semi-massive to massive sulphides, there is sufficient encouragement to suggest that Camelwood is a significant discovery.”

With Rox working to secure approval of a licence application to undertake drilling to the east of Camelwood, Patersons believes this would facilitate the drilling of deeper and more targeted diamond holes.

Patersons has retained its speculative buy rating at 7.9c per share.

Rox shares gained back some of its losses, trading up 1.3% to A7.8c this morning.