Argent expands polymetallic targets outside Kempfield silver resource

Seven RC holes show a new mineralised zone north of Kempfield’s NW Zone prospect
Broad, thick, high-grade zones of silver-heavy polymetallics discovered
Drill testing of targets to occur in next couple of weeks

Special Report: Seven RC drill holes over Argent Minerals’ Kempfield NW Zone prospect have intersected shallow, broad and high-grade zones of silver-gold-copper-lead-zinc mineralisation up to 47m thick from surface.

A new mineralised zone has been delineated 1.1km north of the 300 Mineralised Block deposit, which contains 11.8Mt at 54.62g/t for a 20.8Moz silver equivalent resource.

The latest batch of assays from drilling averaged 10.18g/t silver with 0.3% lead-zinc from 1m down hole, including 12m at 27.04g/t silver with 0.32% lead-zinc from 21m, confirming that the strong mineralisation dips to the west.

Drillhole AKRC245 intersected gold from 2m averaging 3.4g/t gold within an 18m copper-lead-zinc mineralised zone that’s open at depth and along strike.

Seven RC holes — Latest assays from RC drilling at Kempfield. Pic supplied (ARD)

Argent Minerals (ASX:ARD) says the mineralisation intersected has proven the Kempfield volcanic massive sulphide deposit is more extensive than previously known and extends outside the current resource zone.

The explorer’s flagship Kempfield VMS project covers a chunk of ARD’s 1734km2 of exploration ground in central NSW, 60km southwest of the prolific Cadia gold and copper operations.

The Kempfield silver project’s resource estimate for all categories was upgraded to 63.7Mt at 69.75g/t silver, containing of 65.8Moz silver, 125,192oz gold, 207,402t lead and 420,373t zinc.

What’s so good about VMS deposits?

They’re one of the highest-grade types of deposits of copper, lead and zinc globally. VMS deposits can also produce economic amounts of gold and silver, sometimes even as primary commodities of these polymetallic projects.

Currently, global metal production from VMS deposits accounts for 22% of zinc, 9.7% of lead, 6% of copper, 8.7% of silver and 2.2% of gold.

ARD MD Pedro Kastellorizos says the newly defined high-grade gold-silver-base metal zones demonstrate a strong continuation of mineralised extensions along strike from the Lode 300 Mineralised Block.

“It’s notable to see copper introduced into the system this far north for the first time, continuous over a depth of 28m, in addition to significant gold values in drillholes AKRC243 & AKRC245,” Kastellorizos says.

“The assay results further reinforce the significant upside potential of the Kempfield project as we continue to expand the mineralised footprint.

“In addition to the significant advancements made at the Kempfield Project, the delineation of the Sugarloaf Hill, Henry’s and Golden Wattle Prospects within our project portfolio now represent significant high-grade surface Au-Ag-Pb-Zn targets which will be systematically drill tested in the next couple of weeks.”