Todd River Resources (ASX: TRT) is gearing up for the next round of diamond drilling at its high-grade Mt Hardy base metals discovery in the Northern Territory later this month – and it’s confident it will find more mineralisation.

The $8 million explorer will return to the field at Mount Hardy in a few weeks armed with some important new information – the results of down-hole electromagnetic (DHEM) surveys completed on its recently drilled holes.

DHEM surveying involves sending a probe attached to a wire cable down a completed drill-hole.

The probe contains an energy source or transmitter and recording sensor and is able to detect conductive sulphide mineralisation “off-hole”, with the potential to “see” mineralisation up to 75m away from the hole.

The technique is widely used in base metal exploration, and has played a pivotal role in some of the share market’s most famous discoveries – such as Sandfire Resources’ DeGrussa and Monty discoveries and Sirius Resources’ Nova-Bollinger discoveries.

Todd River said in a statement to the ASX today that DHEM surveying had identified “strong down-hole EM conductor plates” adjacent to the high-grade zinc-copper mineralisation at Mt Hardy.

The first hole drilled into the main zone of mineralisation at Mt Hardy returned an intersection of 9.15m grading 4.5% copper, 7.6% lead and 162g/t silver.

A second hole drilled 120m down-dip intersected 13.45m at 15.9% zinc, 5.75% lead, 0.9% copper and 82g/t silver. Subsequent drilling has extended the zone over a down-dip extent of 300m.

Now, Todd River says interpretation of the down-hole EM data indicates that the massive sulphide mineralisation extends both down-dip and along strike, with additional targets identified above the main mineralised zone and to the north of the area drilled so far.

“These are compelling geophysical targets and their significance is further amplified by their proximity to known high-grade mineralisation,” Dix said.

“The conductor plates correlate extremely well with the drilled mineralisation – which is a very encouraging sign – and clearly indicate that the zone extends both down-dip and along strike.

“For any new discovery, this is a really exciting position to be in,” he said.

“We have several holes into what appears to be a significant and consistent zone of high-grade mineralisation.

“We have immediate drill targets in the form of adjacent conductor plates where we think the chances of finding more mineralisation is quite high.

“And, outside of the main zone of mineralisation, we have additional opportunities emerging in the form of conductors above and to the north of the discovery.”

Dix says the company is aiming to have 1-2 rigs back on site by the end of the month and will press ahead with a major new drilling campaign at Mt Hardy to build on its early drilling success.

“We will probably have one RC rig operating continuously to drill out the shallow area above the main sulphide lens, where we think there is great potential for additional mineralisation,” he said.

“A second diamond rig can then target the extensions of the main zone down-dip and along strike.

“We have a drill-defined 300m dip extent – if we can extend that further while extending the mineralisation along strike that will provide a strong platform to grow the footprint of the massive sulphide zone quickly.

“We are very excited about what the next phase of drilling can bring, and we intend to keep drilling right through until mid-December.”

 

This special report is brought to you by Todd River Resources. 

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