A soil auger drilling program on
Ten prospects, selected from a large portfolio of strong targets developed by Thomson, have been prioritised for testing in this program. The prospects to be tested feature extensive historic workings; multiple rock chips with anomalous gold, copper, silver and base metals and magnetic anomalies suggestive of pipe-like buried intrusions.
The rig is currently at the
Holes are being drilled using a trayback mounted soil auger drill at 20m intervals across mineralised trends or magnetic anomalies. They will be drilled to solid basement and an endof-hole sample collected. A total of 14km of soil sampling lines is planned but this may vary depending on access e.g. creek washouts and the like.
Samples will be analysed for gold, copper, silver and base metals and results should be available in
As part of the agreement with Bacchus Resources for Thomson's acquisition of the
Prospects
Ten prospects have been selected as top priority, with several other prospects to pursue after these ten. All prospects are regarded as under-explored or completely new. The auger drilling program is designed to further refine the prospectivity of these prospects so that some or all will be able to be added by Thomson several other prospects Thomson has ready for deeper testing with RC drilling after the coming Wet season and these are currently undergoing geophysical modelling. This summary is repeated from Thomson's ASX release of 7 October.
Borderline
The Borderline prospect features a north-south, 650m long ferruginous and sheared 'lode' with multiple anomalous rock chips (Open File Company Report (CR) no. 16036). Four costeans were trenched across the lode in 1986 and a continuous 1.5m channel sample (BLT 12) returned 28.6 g/t Au and 713 g/t Ag. The trenches revealed a zone of intense quartzsericite hydrothermal alteration. In rock chips gathered across the zone, multiple gold anomalous samples were assayed with best results of 13 g/t Au and 1,210 g/t Ag. No drilling has turned up in historical reports.
Laverock
Four shallow pits were historically worked for copper at the Laverock prospect on a 1.5km long north-south lode. Rock chips gathered in 1984 (CR13177) showed surface gold up to 7.1 g/t Au. Recent rock chip sampling by Bacchus Resources confirmed anomalous gold and copper - up to 5 g/t Au and 1.3% Cu. No drilling or costeaning has turned up in historical reports.
Quartz Hill
The Williamstown area is famous for alluvial gold discovered in 1900 and up till 1903 2,400 ounces of gold were produced (de Havelland 1989). In 1992 Sabina Resources collected stream sediments with good results (CR22344) over a 4km x 2km area and followed up with rock chips, soils and trenching, discovering several hard-rock gold occurrences which apparently had not been known previously (CR23418). RAB and RC drilling followed and there are several RC targets still to be drilled - Thomson proposes to undertake RC drilling in 2021 after the end of the Wet season. Quartz Hill however has not been drilled and recent high-resolution data has revealed a strong magnetic anomaly under this topographic feature which lies just 400m south of
Paradox
The aptly named Paradox prospect features several old prospecting pits with modern exploration comprising rock chips, costeans and four drill holes over an 800m strike length. The mineralization appears to occur as silicification and veining located in a fold hinge and rock chips returned up to 3 g/t Au. Scout drilling in 1986 (CR 16325) did not find significant gold but returned anomalous zinc, lead and silver, with the best result in P1 of 12m at 0.6% Zn, 0.1% Pb and 5 g/t Ag from a depth of 15m. This hole is within the magnetic anomaly area targeted for soil auger testing, as it is offset 300m east from the historic workings and previous rock chip sampling. No costeaning has turned up in historical reports.
Pandanus
Pandanus is a high-resolution magnetic anomaly. A Vector Residual and Analytical Signal (VRMI / AS) high anomaly with negative reduced-to-the-pole total magnetic intensity (RTP TMI) suggests remanence in an intrusion. There is no recorded exploration over the anomaly, but rock chips 400m to the northeast (CR26900) returned up to 1.6 g/t Au, 5% Pb. No drilling or costeaning has turned up in historical reports.
Empire East
Empire East is another example of a very strong negative RTP TMI magnetic low and corresponding Analytical Signal high suggesting magnetic remanence from an intrusion (like Pandanus above). Late Carboniferous intrusions are mapped on the eastern and southern edges of the anomaly. The prospect lies just 2km east of the Empire mining lease but three barren rock chips are the only exploration results reported (CR28243) from the area. No drilling or costeaning has turned up in historical reports.
South bend is another magnetic anomaly, but this time strong in all of RTP TMI, AS and VRMI. The closest rockchip reported (CR 28967) is 700m north and is anomalous in gold (0.2 g/t Au) and copper (0.1% Cu). No drilling or costeaning has turned up in historical reports.
Regional Geology
Mungana and Red Dome are replacement skarn deposits where late Carboniferous intrusions and breccias are hosted by dominantly limestone host rocks. Within the
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