Western Mines unleashes drill rigs on giant WA nickel play

Western Mines Group has kicked off its 2026 field season with the sound of spinning drill rods at its flagship Mulga Tank nickel-copper-cobalt-PGE project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields.

The company has launched the season with a multi-rig campaign designed to grow resources and continue the hunt for high-grade sulphide zones.

Initially, the exploration team will complete several outstanding holes from last year’s phase four program before rolling straight into a fresh round of follow-up and step-out drilling across the expansive Mulga Tank ultramafic complex.

First cab off the rank is an extension of a diamond drill hole, which was co-funded by the Western Australian Government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme. The ultra-deep hole was plunged to a depth of 1437.5 metres late last year and intersected broad zones of remobilised massive sulphide.

The company plans to deepen the hole by a further 50 to 100 metres to confirm the footwall of the complex and pursue more massive sulphide accumulations, while also providing a downhole electromagnetic conduit to target the basal contact.

Alongside the deep diamond drilling, Western Mines says it plans to complete nine reverse circulation (RC) holes within the main body of the Mulga Tank Complex. Three of those holes are designed to infill between two areas of indicated resources to reduce drill spacing and improve confidence, while a further six holes will target extensions beyond the current resource shell.

Particular attention will be paid to the area around one of the strongest shallow RC holes ever drilled at Mulga Tank, which snagged a mammoth continuous intersection of 269 metres at 0.33 per cent nickel, 144 parts per million (ppm) cobalt and 215 ppm copper from 61 metres.

Seven more RC holes are now locked and loaded to chase extensions of that eye-catching mineralisation and hunt for additional shallow high-grade zones.

Once the initial phase four work wraps up, the rigs will roll into the Panhandle area of the project, where combined RC and diamond drilling will test a mineralised komatiite sequence, backed by another round of government Exploration Incentive Scheme funding secured by the company.

Thanks to our October capital raise and numerous EIS grants, we’re well funded to be able to deliver consistent drilling over the next several months.

The project has continued to deliver compelling results over the past three years, demonstrating a vast nickel sulphide system with both disseminated mineralisation and the potential for higher-grade massive sulphide accumulations at depth.

Mulga Tank sits on the under-explored Minigwal Greenstone Belt and hosts what is already the largest nickel sulphide resource in Australia. Western Mines has been steadily building the scale of Mulga Tank through systematic drilling. The project now hosts a gigantic, 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.

As the rigs continue to turn, and with strong funding in place and high-priority targets lined up, Western Mines looks to be setting the stage for an active and potentially value-defining year at Mulga Tank, as it looks to further cement the project’s status as a globally significant nickel sulphide discovery.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au