Boadicea Resources Ltd (ASX:BOA) continued to make progress across its Western Australian and Queensland project portfolio in the September quarter by embarking on new exploration endeavours and expanding its tenement portfolio.

Proactive Investors reports, the mineral exploration company, named after Celtic warrior Queen Boadicea, enjoyed a busy quarter as it reported on work across its Australian assets.

Boadicea currently holds 1,735 square kilometres of ground across three of Australia’s most prolific exploration addresses — the Fraser Range, Paterson Province and Charters Towers/Drummond Basin region.

The ASX-lister ended the quarter with $4.86 million in cash reserves, establishing a funding runway that will support its operations at the same rate of spend for just under four years.

Fraser Range

Within the Fraser Range, Boadicea hosts the Symons Hill, Transline and White Knight nickel properties.

Each of the assets is near existing, major nickel discoveries, farmed by the likes of mining giants IGO Ltd, Legend Mining Limited and the Creasy Group.

Last year, at Symons Hill — the key exploration prospect — Boadicea inked a conditional sale agreement with an IGO subsidiary.

Over a five-year term, IGO can exclusively access and explore nine of the 11 Boadicea-owned Fraser Range tenements.

If IGO declares a JORC resource within the five-year exclusivity period, Boadicea will sell and transfer the Fraser Range assets for $50 million.

Boadicea can also snap up a 0.75% net smelter royalty on all revenues generated by the Fraser Range tenements.

As a result, signs of a nickel discovery across any one of the nine exploration licences IGO is exploring could lead to a $50 million payday for Boadicea.

Over the September quarter, BOA secured assays from a 809.4-metre diamond hole, drilled on the Symons Hill tenement by the IGO team.

Broadly speaking, the results demonstrate a mineralised structure known as the Orion intrusion is fertile for magmatic nickel-copper sulphides.

The best nickel intersection was 2.63 metres at 1,122 parts per million (ppm) nickel and 480 ppm copper from 462.33 metres, while the best copper hit equalled 2 metres at 649 ppm copper and 363 ppm nickel from 439 metres.

At the time, Boadicea Resources managing director Jon Reynolds said: “We are strongly encouraged that IGO remains very confident about the Orion prospect and supports that confidence with the planning of additional holes along the Orion chonolith and other targets on our Symons Hill licence.”

To date, 89 aircore holes for 3,449 metres have been completed on just the Symons Hill property, while IGO continues on-ground exploration and aircore drilling across the other Fraser Range tenements.

It’s discovered a new nickel target on the South Plumridge tenement and plans to conduct a moving-loop electromagnetic survey over the property this month.

Outside of the IGO agreement, on the two Boadicea-managed Fraser Hill assets, BOA prepared for electromagnetic surveys, which should take place in the current quarter.

Paterson Province

To the distant northwest, activity continues in the famed Paterson Province, where Boadicea believes its copper-gold prospects could be a company-maker.

During the September quarter, the company focused on expansion, securing a new tenement to broaden its footprint in the prolific region.

The new tenement, known as the Koongulla North licence, sits not far from where Rio Tinto PLC (LSE:RIO) and Antipa Minerals Ltd (ASX:AZY) are prospecting for minerals.

It expanded BOA’s holding in the province to 885 square kilometres.

Boadicea has also applied for the Koongulla South licence, while it expects the Koongulla East licence will be granted at some point this month.

Exploration in the region centres on a structure known as the Koongulla Dome, a Telfer look-a-like that bears similar dimensions and orientation to Newcrest Mining Ltd’s 32-million-gold-ounce, 1-million-copper-tonne Telfer mine.

An airborne survey took place over the property during the period, with results expected in September.

Queensland tenements

In the sunshine state, Boadicea was also focused on expanding its foothold to support future endeavours.

It’s exploring across Queensland’s Charters Towers and Drummond Basin regions, where it believes there’s prospective tenure for epithermal and intrusive-related gold mineralisation.

BOA secured the 96-square-kilometre Clarke Reward gold licence in late July, meaning it can undertake exploration on the property over a five-year period.

From there, it set out to conduct fieldwork studies to inform a drill testing campaign, which should take place in the current quarter.

Boadicea also applied for the new Mt Carmel exploration tenement, which covers 118 square kilometres in the Drummond Basin.

The ASX-lister hopes to complete an airborne survey over both properties in 2021’s final quarter, but industry congestion is hampering this activity.