The tenements are immediately adjacent to Carnavale's Grey Dam nickel project, where it is looking for Black Swan and Silver Swan-style deposits.

 

The deal consolidates 30km of prospective bedrock ultramafic/mafic sequences and electromagnetic prospects, and comes with an additional 7km of defined anomalous nickel-cobalt-copper targets, the junior said today.

 

Grey Dam now covers some 108sq.km and contains a shallow laterite resource of 14.6 million tonnes grading 0.75% nickel and 0.049% cobalt for 110,000t nickel metal and 7200t cobalt, which has not been closed off.

 

Carnavale's immediate plans are to integrate all previous exploration data for target generation, and then conduct geophysical and geochemical surveys. 

 

There has been limited exploration of the area, despite discoveries along terms including mineralisation at Acra North, Wellington and Pinnacles, because the complex folding at Grey Dam that has made prior exploration difficult.

 

More recent drilling by Carnavale into the Southern EM target appears to have missed the prospect, highlighting the need for a new approach.

 

Carnavale will pay a A$20,000 non-refundable option fee and has three years to explore the Mithril areas at its own cost. It can pay $250,000 to trigger its option, or it can walk at any time with 30 days' notice. 

 

Mithril is now focused on its Billy Hills zinc project in the Canning Basin.  

 

Carnavale shares were steady at 0.2c today, valuing it at $3 million, while Mithril shares were 0.6c, valuing it at $2.9 million.