The company's maiden drilling at the Ban Chang prospect hit 5.2m at 0.66% nickel and 0.73% copper (plus 0.79 grams per tonne PGE) from 58m, including 1m at 3% nickel and 1.2% copper.

Ban Chang is 2.5km from Ban Phuc where previous owners mined 975,000t grading 2.4% nickel and 1% copper from an average vein width of 1.3m.

Geophysics has generated 25 prospects with massive sulphide veins.

The exploration comes with Blackstone looking at a number of potential development scenarios including blending bulk-mined disseminated resources with higher grade massive sulphide resources for processing.

As drilling continues, a maiden disseminated resource estimate is expected next quarter, with Blackstone also starting scoping work on a downstream processing facility at Ta Khoa targeting the lithium ion battery industry.

Blackstone made a placement to EcoPro BM in April worth $6.8 million (when new shares priced at 17c each were issued), with the Korean company being the world's second largest and Korea's largest nickel-rich cathode materials manufacturer.

The two company are looking at the potential to jointly develop the downstream processing facility.

Shares in Blackstone were up 14% to 16.5c in afternoon trade, capitalising the company at $31 million.