Thomson gets the jump on its Hub and Spoke resource target

Thomson now has even more polymetallic resources available for central processing under its New England Fold Belt Hub and Spoke strategy.

It follows the company restating resources for the Strauss and Kylo deposits within its Mt Carrington project to include zinc and copper – along with the existing gold and silver – as an initial step to restating polymetallic resources for all deposits in the project.

Strauss and Kylo now have an Indicated and Inferred resource of 6Mt grading 1.17 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 1.59g/t silver, 0.33% zinc and 0.06% copper, or contained resources of 225,000oz of gold, 306,000oz of silver, 19,800t of zinc and 3,500t of copper.

Notably, Thomson Resources’ (ASX:TMZ) restated resource represents a 21% increase in tonnage, a 2% and 17% increase in gold and silver ounces respectively, and brand new zinc and copper tons over the previous operator’s resource estimate.

There is also potential for further growth as the company’s estimate is based on constraining pit shells which were previously defined by White Rock Minerals (ASX:WRM) for gold only and do not allow for polymetallic mineralisation outside these shells.

Big polymetallic resources

Along with the recent Webbs resource estimate, the NEFBHS now has a combined resource base of, or 87.1Moz contained silver equivalent.

“It is great to be able to finally talk about the polymetallic potential of the Mt Carrington Project and in the context of our Hub and Spoke Strategy,” executive chairman David Williams says.

“Whilst we will continue our robust and thorough approach to reporting MRE’s, given the work we had already done on the Strauss and Kylo deposits under the earn-in, we were able to quickly get these done to illustrate the potential to uplift the resources by bringing in the zinc and copper mineralisation.”

He added the Strauss and Kylo estimates took the company a long way towards its 100Moz silver equivalent target available for a centralised processing facility.

“It must also be remembered that these 2 deposits are gold dominate deposits with minimal silver and we are still to bring in the silver ounces from the likes of the silver dominant deposits of Lady Hampden, Silver King and White Rock,” Williams explains.

“Once we can add in these other deposits with our polymetallic MRE’s, given the estimates already published by White Rock for just the silver, I am very confident that our 100Moz AgEq target will be well exceeded.

“The Mt Carrington picture will continue to evolve and will enhance the NEFBHS as we complete the updated MRE’s, fold them into the Central Processing Pathway Study, progress the metallurgical understanding and embark on drill testing the areas between the various deposits.”

More to be found at Strauss and Kylo

Thomsons’ resource re-statement assumes the two deposits will be mined by open pit mining methods with revised commodity price and polymetallic processing and recovery assumptions used to identify a pit shell to constrain mineralisation.

However, gold, zinc, copper, silver grades shells generated from exploration and resource drilling have shown that significant gold and zinc mineralisation extends beneath and laterally away from the pit.

This suggests that a focussed re-interpretation, re-estimation and re-optimisation to take into consideration the polymetallic character of the mineralisation will capture additional gold, silver, zinc and copper mineralisation in the future.

This article was developed in collaboration with Thomson Resources, 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.