Nexus Strikes Gold Again at Payns

By the looks of it, Nexus Minerals (ASX: NXM) might be sitting on a golden opportunity at its Payns Prospect, part of the company’s Wallbrook Gold Project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields. The company has just dropped a set of RC drill results that should raise a few eyebrows and perhaps a few market caps too.

The first pass reverse circulation (RC) program at Payns covered 5,172 metres across 46 drill holes and delivered solid evidence of a coherent, shallow gold system with real legs. Forty five of those holes hit gold. That is the kind of hit rate that puts a spring in a geologist’s step.

The key takeaways? The drilling confirmed and extended a 900 by 750 metre mineralised footprint previously hinted at in earlier aircore programs. The assays include some head-turners: 8 metres at 7.99 grams per tonne (g/t) gold within a broader 24 metres at 2.80 g/t from just 40 metres depth. Another standout was 8 metres at 2.85 g/t within 16 metres at 1.55 g/t from 36 metres. It is not nuggety noise either. The system is showing good continuity both laterally and at depth.

Nexus managing director Andy Tudor is understandably upbeat. “Payns prospect has continued to deliver with some exceptional results… Especially encouraging is the high-grade gold component,” he said. “Given the collective AC and now RC composite results we remain confident that the prospect will continue to build.”

There is also something to be said for Payns’ postcode. It sits a stone’s throw from Northern Star’s operational Porphyry and Million Dollar gold mines, and just four kilometres from Nexus’ own Crusader-Templar resource, which currently stands at 304,000 ounces. This is not speculative frontier land – it is right in the middle of a well-endowed, well-understood gold district.

Geologically, Payns is shaping up as a classic Eastern Goldfields-style system. The fresh rock consists of felsic and intermediate volcanics cut by hematite-altered porphyries. Near surface, mineralisation is linked to quartz-goethite veining, while the higher-grade hits at depth correlate with quartz-sulphide (mostly pyrite) veining, suggesting a robust hydrothermal system at play.

The one-metre split samples are still in the lab and due back in August. These will help refine the understanding of the higher-grade zones and perhaps even hint at some resource potential. Nexus is also planning follow-up drilling to test extensions both along strike and down dip. That makes sense – the mineralised system remains open in most directions.

As far as exploration updates go, this one ticks a lot of boxes. There is scale, grade, continuity, and location. The market will no doubt be watching closely when those one-metre assays land. For now, Payns has done its job – it has piqued interest and set the stage for the next act in Nexus’ Wallbrook story.