Zenith Minerals Limited (ASX:ZNC) has announced the commencement of drilling campaigns at its Hayes Hill Project in Western Australia, targeting both gold and nickel prospects.

The project, located in the highly prospective Norseman-Widgiemooltha area, consists of four granted exploration licences with significant gold and nickel potential.

An air core drilling campaign is underway, targeting large, 2.5 km-long gold anomalies identified by Zenith’s recent auger drilling program.

The project is positioned between the major multimillion-ounce active gold mining districts of Central Norseman and Higginsville.

Notably, open-pit gold mining is active immediately west of the project area, and Karora Resources Limited’s gold mining haul road passes through the northeast corner of the project tenure.

Concurrently, an RC drilling campaign has commenced at the Green Bananas nickel sulphide target.

This target features a strong discrete ground EM geophysical bedrock conductor (up to 20,000 siemens) modelled immediately west of a nickel auger anomaly with peak values of 0.43% nickel, 0.44% copper, 0.53% cobalt, and 203ppm platinum.

Zenith’s Managing Director, Michael Clifford, expressed enthusiasm for the drilling programs, noting the project’s location between major active gold mining districts and the compelling nature of both the gold and nickel targets.

“This large-scale gold drill target is located between the major active gold mining districts of Norseman and Higginsville in the Eastern Goldfields. We are pleased to be conducting this drill campaign during a period of a strong gold price.

“We will also undertake an RC drill test of the Green Bananas nickel sulphide target. This is at a time where the nickel market has shown significant resilience with a rapid rebound in the nickel price. Both the nickel and gold targets are highly compelling and we look forward to keeping you updated as these drill programs advance,” said Clifford.

The Hayes Hill Project is situated within a highly prospective regional package of ultramafic and mafic rocks, extending 18km north along a strike from Galileo’s Calisto nickel-PGE discovery and a similar distance south of the Cassini nickel deposit acquired by Wyloo Metals in mid-2023.

Zenith holds an option to acquire 100 per cent of the Hayes Hill project, with the RC drill testing of the Green Bananas prospect required under the option terms.

The company plans to provide updates as the drill programs progress and assay results become available.