The 70km2 Andover Project is located in the West Pilbara region of Western Australia.
The Project covers most of the Andover Mafic-Ultramafic Intrusive Complex and exploration has successfully discovered several significant bodies of nickel (Ni), copper (Cu) and cobalt (Co) sulphide mineralisation.
Being a mafic-ultramafic intrusion, Andover has similar geological characteristics to the East Kimberley region (host to Panoramic Resources’ Savannah Ni-Cu-Co mine), the Fraser Range Province (host to IGO’s Nova-Bollinger Ni-Cu-Co mine) and the Julimar Intrusive Complex (host to Chalice Mining’s Gonneville Pd-Pt-Ni-Cu-Co project).
In March 2022, Azure completed a major milestone, announcing the maiden Mineral Resource Estimate (“MRE”) for the Andover Deposit.
The MRE (JORC 2012) is 4.6Mt @ 1.11% Ni, 0.47% Cu and 0.05% Co (1.41% NiEq) for 51,700t of contained Nickel, 21,700t of contained Copper and 2,290t of contained Cobalt at a cut-off grade of 0.5% Ni (see Table 1) (refer ASX: 30 March 2022 for full details).
Andover is located immediately south of the town of Roebourne (pop: approx. 1,000) and 35km southeast of Karratha (pop: approx. 23,000) (see Figure 1). Excellent local infrastructure exists throughout the district, with sealed highways, potable water pipeline, gas pipeline, high voltage electrical power lines, airports, and port access, with mining, commercial and residential support services available.
The Project is situated in a well-mineralised district, with the Carlow Castle gold-copper-cobalt deposit 3km to the west, the now-closed Radio Hill nickel-copper mine and sulphide flotation plant (under care and maintenance) 28km to the southwest and the Sherlock Bay nickel deposit 30km to the east.
Azure has developed and is successfully progressing a dual-phase strategy, focused on developing the Andover deposit into production, while expanding the size and scale of the Andover Project through exploration and discovery. Successful delivery of this strategy will grow Andover into a major nickel-copper sulphide mining and processing operation with multiple deposits, feeding a central processing plant
