PERTH-BASED Impact Minerals Limited (ASX:IPT) has received a grant of $75,000 from the $2m New Frontiers Cooperative Drilling grants program awarded by the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.

The funds, awarded on the technical merit of the proposed drill program, will be used to drill test specific targets along the Rockwell-Little Broken Hill Gabbro trend, a 6km-long maficultramafic intrusion that is highly prospective for deposits of high grade nickel-copper-platinum group metals (PGM), including palladium and rhodium, currently at near record prices.

The entire trend is very poorly explored with only a few drill holes completed by previous explorers to shallow depths.

As part of the preparation for a drill program, field checking and extensive rock chip sampling was recently completed along the Little Broken Hill trend. Samples will be submitted to the laboratory shortly with results expected in May.

Impact Minerals managing director Mike Jones said the grant was a testament to the in-house research completed at the site over the past few years on the potential of the region to host high grade nickel copper-PGM mineralisation.

The recent discoveries of similar mineralisation in magmatic massive sulphides by both Chalice Gold Mines at Julimar near Perth, and Legend Mining near Nova-Bollinger in the Fraser Range, show that there is considerable interest in this style of mineralisation,” he said.

In addition, the recent exceptional drill results of Alkane Resources from the Boda discovery along trend from our Commonwealth project continue to demonstrate the tremendous upside for porphyry copper-gold mineralisation in the region.”

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