Golden Deeps receives notice of NSW Government intent to grant Tuckers Hill licence

Golden Deeps (ASX: GED) appears to be cementing ownership of the Tuckers Hill exploration licence after the New South Wales Department of Mining, Exploration and Geoscience provided notification it intended to grant the licence.

As a result, Golden Deeps’ geologists plan to be onsite at Tuckers Hill near Mudgee tomorrow.

Tuckers Hill surrounds the historic Hargraves Goldfield and has had little modern exploration.

Previous records show about 1,900t of ore was mined at the project with an average grade of 38 grams per tonne gold.

Records indicate production ran from 1896 to 1908 and again from 1916 to 1939.

Boots on the ground

The company has wasted no time in mobilising its team to site. Once on site, Golden Deeps’ geologists will begin mapping and rock chip sampling to finalise targets for diamond drilling.

Drilling is planned to begin “as soon as possible”.

In readiness of securing ownership of the project, Golden Deeps has already held positive discussions regarding access with some landholders to begin the fieldwork.

Golden Deeps has already compiled previous exploration data and re-imaging of aeromagnetic information has identified five gold mineralised trends.

The priority trends are Tuckers Hill and Maitland where previous sampling of historic workings and quartz veins uncovered high-grade gold.

According to Golden Deeps, rock chips taken from the Philips vein at Tuckers Hill in 1963 returned a peak 705g/t gold.

Another sampling program in 1981 generated numerous assays grading between 1g/t gold and 28g/t gold.

In good company

Golden Deeps’ Tuckers Hill project has many prospective neighbours including its other priority project Havilah, which is 20km away.

Tuckers Hill adjoins the northern end of Peak Minerals’ Hill End gold project that has a resource of 4.68Mt at 3.3g/t gold for 501,552oz.

Tuckers Hill adjoins the southern boundary of Silver Mines’ (ASX: SVL) Bowdens silver project, which has resource of 128Mt at 40g/t silver, 0.38% zinc and 0.26% lead.

Additionally, Golden Deeps believes the mineralisation at Tuckers Hill is a similar style to that found at the Fosterville mine in Victoria.

Golden Deeps recently raised $2.4 million lead by Melbourne-based broker Peak Asset Management, putting it in a strong position to utilise funds for its upcoming drilling campaign.