The first hole drilled beyond the current resource returned 7m at 0.98% nickel and 1.13% copper from 185m and 3m at 1.45% nickel and 0.22% copper from 199m.
 
The hold was targeting an untested electromagnetic conductor.
 
The new discovery has been dubbed the Sugar lode and it remains open along strike and down-dip.
 
The infill drilling program at Nebo is continuing and has returned more results which have exceeded the company’s expectations.
 
New results included the best result to date of 36m at 1.54% nickel and 1.04% copper from 90m, including 10m at 2.46% nickel and 1.44% copper and 4m at 3.11% nickel and 0.84% copper.
 
Cassini has also assayed drill results for cobalt, which returned better-than-expected results of 3m at 0.62% nickel, 1.01% copper and 0.13% cobalt.
 
Cassini managing director Richard Bevan said the company was “amazed” by the results from the ongoing drilling program at Nebo.
 
“The results continues exceed our expectations and definitely validate Cassini’s higher grade infill strategy,” he said.
 
“The immediate success from step-out drilling provides encouragement that additional higher-grade mineralisation can be delineated by targeting untested EM conductors beyond the existing resource boundary.”
 
The current Nebo-Babel resource is 446 million tonnes at 0.33% nickel and 0.35% copper for 1.47Mt contained nickel and 1.56Mt copper, including a higher grade component of 33.2Mt at 0.73% nickel and 0.59% copper.
 
The company acquired the West Musgrave project from BHP Billiton earlier this year and its strategy is to define a smaller, high-grade start-up mine rather than the giant deposit BHP had been pursuing.
 
Cassini’s maiden drilling campaign comprises 25,000m of reverse circulation drilling and 700m of diamond core drilling.
 
Since drilling began on September 2, around 12,000m has been completed.
 
The company is aiming to prepare a maiden indicated resource at the end of the program.
 
Shares in Cassini jumped as much as 16.6% this morning to an intraday high of A21c but were last trading at 18.5c.