One of Australia’s most anticipated mineral exploration targets is about to be drilled, after market darling Chalice Mining said it had received long-awaited approvals to work inside a state forest in Western Australia.

Chalice has found a highly prospective platinum, palladium, nickel and copper deposit on farmland at “Gonneville”, about 60 kilometres north-east of Perth, but aerial surveys have fostered hope the discovery is just the tip of a much bigger iceberg that extends into the adjacent Julimar State Forest.