Auroch Minerals Limited announced drilling will commence next week at its high-grade Nepean Nickel Project (Nepean), located 25km south of Coolgardie, in Western Australia. The RC drill programme will test possible near-mine extensions to the high-grade nickel sulphide mineralisation, as well as previously untested high-priority targets along the 10km of underexplored strike of the Nepean mafic-ultramafic mine stratigraphy and/or aeromagnetic anomalies. The Nepean Nickel Project contains the historic high-grade Nepean nickel sulphide mine, which was the second producing nickel mine in Australia, producing 1,108,457t of ore between 1970 and 1987 for 32,202t of nickel metal at an average recovered grade of 2.99% Ni 1. The company has identified several near-mine drill targets to potentially extend the known high-grade massive nickel sulphide mineralisation, particularly along strike to the south where historic RC drilling successfully intersected very high-grade nickel sulphide mineralisation, including1: 3m @ 11.78% Ni from 37m (NP084470-2); 3m @ 9.93% Ni from 49m (NP084480-1); 4m @ 6.63% Ni from 46m (NP084470-1); 6m @ 2.82% Ni from 53m (NP084490-1). In addition to the near-mine prospectivity, the drilling will test several high-priority targets along strike within the 3,128 ha tenement package, where aeromagnetic anomalies align with the Nepean mafic-ultramafic mine stratigraphy to create compelling drill targets with high potential for nickel sulphide mineralisation.