Asian Battery Metals (ASX:AZ9) zeroes in on high-grade sulphides at Oval

When a junior explorer in Mongolia starts punching out intercepts of 3.49 percent copper and 3.61 percent nickel, investors would do well to sit up and take notice.

Asian Battery Metals (ASX:AZ9), a London headquartered explorer with operations centred in Mongolia, has confirmed a new zone of high-grade massive sulphides at its Oval discovery within the Yambat Project.

The results not only strengthen the emerging picture of a camp scale magmatic system, but mark a significant stride forward in the company’s ambition to become a supplier of battery metals across the copper-nickel-cobalt-platinum group spectrum.

Key Highlights:

• OVD040 intersected 6.9 metres at 3.49% Cu, 3.61% Ni, 0.76g/t Pt+Pd+Au and 0.14% Co from 93.5m

• OVD036 returned 2.0 metres at 3.72% Cu, 3.82% Ni and 1.65g/t Pt+Pd+Au from 113.3m

• The mineralised corridor now extends over 800 metres with semi-continuous sulphide mineralisation

In a drilling campaign comprising over 2,900 metres across 16 holes, the company has moved beyond isolated hits to a broader structural understanding of the intrusion hosted mineralisation.

Results from holes OVD038 and OVD039 suggest a linking gabbroic body between North Oval and Oval proper, which could mean greater lateral continuity and, eventually, mineability.

Managing Director Gan-Ochir Zunduisuren called the assays “further confirmation of the strength of the mineralised system at Yambat.”

“High-grade zones at Oval and North Oval are now confirmed to extend both at depth and along strike.”

Importantly, the shallow nature of the mineralisation less than 100 metres from surface in some cases improves the potential development case.

The use of downhole EM has proven instrumental in defining targets, with drillhole OVD036 intercepting its high-grade zone directly beneath the 11,093 siemens conductor plate designated OVD035-B.

Elsewhere in the region, early scout drilling at the MS1 target turned up trace PGEs and sulphides, reinforcing the fertility of the wider magmatic system.

Hole SC07, in particular, revealed cumulate rocks that appear to have been depleted in nickel suggesting the metal has been extracted and concentrated elsewhere in the system.

The company now awaits results from its SAMSON ground EM and high-resolution magnetic surveys, with the next round of drilling scheduled to commence within six weeks.

Closing in on a district-scale discovery

ABM remains fully funded for its 2025 exploration push.

Should continuity be established across the 800-metre trend, the company could be on the cusp of defining a significant nickel-copper-PGE system in a geologically underexplored part of Asia.

“These results support growing confidence in a larger, camp-scale system,” Zunduisuren said.

For now, the market awaits not only the interim EM survey results but the metallurgical tests slated for the third quarter.

If those results stack up as expected, Asian Battery Metals could become one of the more compelling battery metal explorers on the ASX radar.