Drilling at Thomson’s Harry Smith project in the Lachlan Fold Belt has returned further wide gold intercepts that highlight its open pit potential.
To top it off, drill results from the Phase 4 program such as 7m grading 4.2 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 56m and 8m at 2.0g/t gold from 94m have extended the mineralisation footprint to the west and northwest with a possible third lode discovered to the north.
Previous drilling by Thomson Resources (ASX:TMZ) had also discovered thick low-grade gold mineralisation from surface as well as deeper high-grade lodes.
“These latest results from the Harry Smith gold project are highly encouraging and mark a further significant exploration success for the company,” executive chairman David Williams said.
“Not only have all holes intersected significant gold, but the continuity of these high-grade and relatively shallow results bodes extremely well for the development of this project.”
Drill results
The best result from the Phase 4 drilling (7m @ 4.2g/t gold), completed in February, is located at the Silver Spray Lode within a broader 55m intercept grading 0.8g/t gold from 56m in hole HSRC27.
Hole HSRC31 drilled at the eastern end of Silver Spray as a follow-up to a previous hole HSRC15 returned a thick 76m interval at 0.5g/t gold from 54m.
Both holes had significant higher-grade intercepts of 8m at 2g/t gold from 94m and 9m at 2.2g/t gold from 69m that suggests a strong continuity of mineralisation.
A further hole drilled on the same section, up dip to the southwest, also returned a strong intercept of 18m at 0.8g/t gold from surface that together with the other two holes suggest a wide zone of mineralisation dipping at a steep angle to the northeast.
Over at the Golden Spray lode, drilling has indicated that the lode is further south than predicted with good depth continuity.
Thomson noted that further drilling is needed to intersect the lode at shallower depths and further northwest where it is still open.
Additionally, two holes intersected mineralisation too far north to be part of the Golden Spray system and are now interpreted to belong to a new lode named Bronze Spray, though further drilling is required to prove up and delineate it.
New geological interpretation
Thomson noted that the three lodes defined to date are generally parallel and separated by 200m.
They define a mineralised corridor running north-northwest to south-southeast and drilling outside this corridor has not yielded gold.
Additionally, the results explain the lack of gold joining the Harry Smith old workings to those at Golden Spray and the apparent termination of both of these workings to the southeast.
The company says the geometry is suggestive of a shear vein system with a fault corridor with gold-filled gashes at a high oblique angle to the overall zone.
Such a system is common and means that further gold-filled fractures could be found along the trend, which will be tested by further exploration.
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.