ASX-listed junior Rox Resources has exercised an option to purchase two tenements at its Fisher East nickel and Mt Fisher gold projects, in Western Australia.

Under the terms of the option, the exercise price is $600 000 in cash.

The tenements, situated along strike to the south of known nickel and gold zones on existing Rox tenements, were subject to an option to purchase agreement.

These two tenements, Rox MD Ian Mulholland said on Tuesday, were key strategic assets to the base and precious metals explorer’s nickel and gold projects at Fisher East and Mt Fisher, respecitively.

He explained that the tenements represented highly prospective areas where the junior miner had identified strong indications of mineralisation.

Mulholland remains confident that Rox will make further discoveries, which will allow mineral resources to be defined.

The Fisher East nickel project hosts a mineral resource of two-million-tonnes at 2.5% nickel for 50 600 t of contained nickel at Camelwood, Cannonball and Musket, with a fourth deposit, Sabre, yet to be drilled out.

The first tenement, E53/1802, is located along strike to the south of Rox’s existing Sabre nickel sulphide discovery, where drill intercepts including 10 m at 1.9% nickel and 2.3 m at 2.4% nickel have been made.

The tenement covers about 10 km of the prospective ultramafic horizon, now providing Rox with a total 40 km strike length of that favourable stratigraphy.

Since the option was announced by Rox, work has identified nickel and copper geochemical anomies on E53/1802, with fresh nickel sulphides intersected in air core drilling at the Mt Tate prospect coincident with an EM anomaly.

Further drilling at Mt Tate, and other prospects within E53/1802, is planned over the coming months.

The Mt Fisher gold project, adjacent to the junior’s Fisher East nickel project, contains a mineral resource of about 973 000 t grading 2.5g/t gold for 86 000 oz of gold.

The second tenement acquired, E53/1788, is located along strike to the south of the 7-km-long gold-in-regolith anomaly currently held by Rox at the Dam and Dirks prospects, which also hosts the Shiva gold prospect, where a recent aircore drilling programme identified a 500-m-long continuous zone of gold anomalism at 1g/t of gold, extending the potential gold-bearing corridor to more than 10 km.