Kempfield resource growth on the cards after Argent returns broad mineralisation

• Drilling at Argent’s Kempfield hits 196.4m of silver mineralisation with new zone discovered at 283m depth
• High-grade near-surface zones enhance potential for early-stage mining and selective extraction.
• Results confirm thick, robust silver zones with resource growth potential to support ongoing development studies

Special Report: Argent Minerals has intersected broad, high-grade silver zones in diamond drilling at its Kempfield silver–polymetallic project in the highly prospective Lachlan Fold Belt, NSW.

Drillhole AKDD208 at Lode 200 intersected 196.4m of mineralisation across three distinct zones, including a newly identified mineralised horizon from 283m downhole.

This further supports the under-explored nature of the Kempfield VMS system.

Other intersections in the hole include:

• 145m at 87.66g/t AgEq (52.7g/t silver, 0.17% lead and 0.65% zinc) from 20mincluding 22m at 247.24g/t AgEq (177.5g/t Ag, 0.35% Pb and 1.36% Zn) from 76m; and
• 42.6m at 102.02g/t AgEq (48.64g/t Ag, 0.22% Pb and 1.1% Zn) from 225.4m including 7.3m at 324.4g/t AgEq (108.5g/t Ag, 0.82% Pb, 4.49% Zn and 0.2g/t gold) from 225.4m.

This includes an exceptional 1m intercept grading 981.26g/t AgEq from 103m.

Argent Minerals (ASX:ARD) drilled AKDD208 as one of two deep diamond holes at Lode 100 and Lode 200 to determine the true depth of the Kempfield deposit and upgrade historical metallurgical datasets.

These include the 2011 heap leach and the 2018 CIL/flotation testwork.

“The drilling has delivered extensive high-grade silver intersections that materially enhance the project’s potential,” ARD managing director Pedro Kastellorizos said.

“Notable results include broad 145 vertical metres of 87.66 g/t Ag Eq with high-grade 27m intervals grading over 226.2 g/t Ag Eq, confirming both the depth continuity and strength of mineralisation. Importantly, several of these high-grade zones occur near surface, providing potential for early-stage mining and selective extraction.”

He added the results confirmed the presence of thick, robust silver zones that significantly increased the potential to expand resources and support development studies.

Drill results

Hole AKDD208 was drilled vertically on the western flank of Lode 200 with assays confirming three distinct mineralised lenses with high-grade zones within the mineralised envelope.

The three sub-vertical, east-dipping ore-bearing zones are hosted predominantly within siltstone/sandstone sequences and characterised by moderate pyrite–sphalerite mineralisation.

Mineralisation consists of a massive sulphide core enveloped by disseminated to veined (locally stockwork) pyrite–sphalerite sulphides.

Notably, the massive sulphide and associated stockwork zones occur from shallow depths, enhancing the potential for definition of an open-pittable resource.

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More drilling

ARD has received approval to carry out further drilling at Lode 200 from the NSW regulator.

The company plans to drill one vertical diamond hole to a depth of about 300m to test the northern depth extensions of the mineralisation intersected in hole AKDD208.

All drill samples from AKDD208 and AKDD209 have been dispatched to Auralia Metallurgy to commence new heap leach and CIL/flotation testwork.

This article was developed in collaboration with Argent Minerals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.