Distinct mineralising events are noted throughout the history of the belt, with the Nova nickel-copper-cobalt deposit hosted by mafic intrusions dated at about 1.3 billion years old, in a prime example of magmatic sulphide melts being emplaced into the deep crust.

Terrain Minerals executive director Justin Virgin said: “The hunt for the next Nova-style magmatic nickel-copper deposit in the Albany-Fraser Belt is intensifying and we believe we are at the forefront of this search. IGO’s success with Nova has shown that these highly-valuable ore bodies are not isolated occurrences but part of a broader, richly-mineralised region.”

The company points to IGO’s investment of $1.8 billion in Nova, at a time when nickel prices were significantly lower, as highlighting the immense potential of this type of deposit. IGO’s fourth-quarter financial numbers for the year show that its Nova ore bodies are still profitable, even at today’s nickel price.

Terrain’s 100 per cent-owned Lort River nickel exploration project extends more than 640 square kilometres of prospective exploration acreage centred about 50km north-west of the southern port city of Esperance and is about 300km south-west of the Nova-Bollinger project. The belt is not only home to Nova-Bollinger, but also AngloGold Ashanti-Regis Resources’ giant Tropicana venture and its 1.57 million-ounce gold mineral reserve about 650km north-east of Terrain’s ground.

Terrain’s recent airborne geophysical survey has revealed compelling evidence that the southern half of the Albany-Fraser Belt could be just as promising as the northern region where Nova was discovered. Management says the presence of late-time bedrock conductors within the Nova-lookalike eye feature at Lort River strongly supports its belief that it is geologically well-positioned to make a new discovery.

The company is planning to follow up its airborne VTEM survey results with a ground-based electromagnetic (EM) survey and also proposes undertaking a supportive soil geochemical sampling program across the conductors to determine their prospectivity for potentially economic massive nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation. It expects to kick off reconnaissance drilling in the final quarter of the year.

If Terrain can pull a new orebody out of the hat at Lort River then it really will be worth a bottle of Bollinger – or a few – and the new story will also go a long way towards proving the revision of the Albany-Fraser structural history model.

If that all comes together, then it will on for young and old in WA’s south-west corner and new explorers to the region will need to book their Esperance accommodation much earlier than they might have expected … or bring a tent.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au