Cosmo Metals (ASX: CMO) has confirmed the presence of shallow high-grade gold in early results from drilling at the Spring Creek prospect within its Bingara project in New South Wales.
Follow-up work returned as much as 58.3 grams per tonne gold in assays from the first five in a now complete 13-hole program.
The program at Spring Creek – the first conducted at Bingara since the mid-1990s – is looking to confirm historical results that intersected shallow high-grade gold up to 17.59g/t.
Drilling is also testing the potential for steep-dipping feeder zones in positions untested to this point, along with the southern extensions of the strong gold–arsenic soil anomaly.
Historical Shallow Drilling
Spring Creek is located in the centre of the 12-kilometre long Star of Bingara to Lone Hand Trend, and is the only area of Bingara to undergo shallow exploration drilling.
Those programs comprised a total of 45 holes drilled between 1984 and 1996 for for 1,737.2m at an average hole length of only 38.6m.
Applying a 0.3g/t cutoff, gold mineralisation at Spring Creek consists of a shallow – approximately 10° to 15° – easterly dipping sheet as thick as 14m in places that is defined to a maximum depth of 36m below surface to the limit of drilling.
Data from the reverse circulation program will help identify follow-up targets at Spring Creek, as well as guide exploration along the broader trend.
Enhanced Geological Understanding
“This 12km trend is a clear focus for Cosmo’s gold exploration efforts within the Bingara project,” managing director Ian Prentice said, adding that results to date had significantly enhanced the company’s understanding of the broader geological setting.
“We are eagerly awaiting the balance of the results from this program and applying the learnings that will inform future drilling to the north of Spring Creek,” he said.
Elsewhere, Cosmo is conducting a NSW government co-funded geochemistry program at the Mt Everest–Mona trend to test a long copper target corridor.
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