Thomson identifies potential to extend Mt Carrington base metals mineralisation

Thomson could drastically increase the value of its Mt Carrington project in northern NSW after uncovering evidence that base metals mineralisation extends beyond current pit shells.

Relogging of geotechnical holes drilled by the company in 2021 as part of its Definitive Feasibility Study obligations returned visual indications of base metal mineralisation on the margins of the Strauss-Kylo open pits.

Importantly, the observations indicate that mineralisation extends beyond the current gold pit shells which were optimised for gold-silver resources under partner White Rock Minerals’ Pre-Feasibility Study.

It also vindicates Thomson Resources’ (ASX:TMZ) decision back in May 2022 to restructure its earn-in agreement to move away from the gold-first development strategy to focus on the larger scale gold-silver polymetallic opportunity at Mt Carrington.

This will then be incorporated into its New England Fold Belt Hub and Spoke Strategy, which envisions a centralised processing facility to produce precious and base metals from its broader 87.1Moz silver equivalent resource.

“We had put these holes, which were not exploration holes, to one side as we set about renegotiating the terms of our earn-in and option to JV agreement with White Rock. With that done and the freeing up of our resources we came back and had a look at them to see what we could see,” executive chairman David Williams said.

“As we noted in our ASX Release on 22 June 2022 on our updated polymetallic MREs for the Strauss and Kylo deposits, we believed it was likely that the polymetallic mineralisation extended beyond those constrained pit shells.

“To have that view reinforced by holes not drilled for that purpose demonstrates our shift in approach with Mt Carrington to focus on the potential coalescing of the deposits into a large polymetallic resource, is the correct one.”

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

Mt Carrington project

Thomson is earning an initial 51% interest in the Mt Carrington project from White Rock by spending at least $5m in expenditure, comprising exploration activities, care and maintenance operational activities and care and maintenance minor capital works over three years from 7 March 2022.

It can then choose to increase its stake to 70% by completing a further $2m in expenditure, comprising exploration activities, care and maintenance operational activities and care and maintenance minor capital works over a two-year period.

Mt Carrington is located about 5km from the township of Drake on the Bruxner Highway and is one of several gold-silver plus base metal districts which formed along the east coast of Australia during the Permian age.

Other examples include the Cracow mine (2.5Moz at 4.97g/t gold) and Mt Carlton (1.2Moz gold at 2.46g/t and 12Moz silver at 24g/t).

There has been a significant history of gold-silver and copper mining at Mt Carrington starting in 1853 and with modern small scale open pit mining by Mt Carrington Mines from 1974 to 1990.

Thomson believes that significant value can be unlocked by capturing the combined gold-silver-copper-zinc mineralisation locked in the Kylo, Strauss and Guy Bell deposits.

It will form a key part of its New England Fold Belt Hub and Spoke Strategy which is based on metallurgical test work indicating that compatibility between the various deposits could allow for their ore to be processed at a centralised processing facility.

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.