Argent Minerals poised to drill Kempfield in search of gold and copper
During 2016, Argent Minerals uncovered a peak intercept at Kempfield of 1m at 1,065g/t gold and 143g/t silver.
Argent Minerals (ASX: ARD) revealed this morning the drill rig had arrived on site at its flagship Kempfield project in New South Wales, with drilling to target gold and copper mineralisation.
The company has planned a 3,000m reverse circulation drilling program at Kempfield with the first hole to be collared in the project’s copper and gold footwall where rock chip sampling in March uncovered up to 4.95% copper, 0.96 grams per tonne gold, 40.2g/t silver and 1.56% lead.
As part of the campaign, Argent will drill the higher-grade lead and zinc Henry zone which is to the north of the current resource.
Meanwhile, infill drilling will also be undertaken across the lead, zinc and silver zone to add tonnage to the resource.
All up, in this campaign, 23 holes will be drilled.
Argent chief executive officer and managing director George Karageorge said the Argent team was “excited” to begin the first drilling program at Kempfield since 2016.
He added the company’s “expectations were high”.
Kempfield background
Kempfield hosts an existing resource of 52 million ounces of silver equivalent at 120g/t silver equivalent, and 520,000t of zinc equivalent at 2% zinc equivalent.
Argent has calculated an exploration target for the project of between 58Moz and 190Moz silver equivalent plus 300,000-1Mt of zinc equivalent.
When Argent drilled the project in 2016, it uncovered highlight assays of 1m at 1,065g/t gold and 143g/t silver from 97m; and 1.8m at 1.21% copper and 2.99g/t gold and 50g/t silver from 136m.
Cashed up to explore
Argent noted it has received $255,000 in NSW Government drilling grants and recently raised $1.3 million before costs.
Mr Karageorge said the company was “overwhelmed” by the placement support and the proceeds to be directed towards the company’s “most aggressive” exploration program in years.
In addition to Kempfield, Argent will be drilling West Wyalong, Pine Ridge and Loch Lily which are all located across the Lachlan Fold Belt and in proximity to other operations and discoveries.