UPDATE 2.20pm: Shares in buzzstock Sirius Resources jumped then fell after the company announced its maiden resource for its Nova deposit at the Fraser Range project east of Norseman.

The explorer emerged from a trading halt to announce a maiden mineral resource of 10.2 million tonnes at 2.4 per cent nickel, one per cent copper and 0.08 per cent cobalt.

Broken down, the deposit hosts contained resources of 242,000 tonnes of nickel, 100,000 tonnes of copper and 7700 tonnes of cobalt.

Sirius said 90 per cent of the resource was in the indicated category, which was sufficient to use as a basis for estimating a probable ore reserve and undertake a feasibility study.

The company said the mineral resource estimate would form the basis of a scoping study which would begin soon.

The figures do not include any resources from the company's neighbouring and recently discovered Bollinger deposit, where drilling is continuing.