TechGen Metals to acquire Jackadgery gold project from Zenith Minerals
TechGen Metals plans to commence a maiden drilling program at the NSW project in mid-2022.
Junior explorer TechGen Metals (ASX: TG1) is set to acquire the Jackadgery gold project in New South Wales from Zenith Minerals (ASX: ZNC) subsidiary Black Dragon Energy (Aus) Pty Ltd and two private equity holders.
The project comprises tenements EL9121 and EL8389 and comes with “walk-up and fully permitted” drill targets.
The proposed acquisition will see TechGen grab a 100% interest in EL9121 and an option to acquire 90% in EL8389 for an upfront consideration of $133,250 worth of TechGen shares (at $0.20 each) and deferred consideration upon achievement of various milestones.
Payment in shares will allow TechGen to conserve its cashflow and allow for a fully-funded maiden drilling campaign planned for mid-year.
Project line-up
TechGen managing director Ashley Hood said Jackadgery will complement the company’s project line-up.
“Keeping with our strong copper-gold focus, we are delighted to be adding such a robust and highly-prospective project to our portfolio,” he said.
“It is rare that an exploration asset such as Jackadgery — which has historic gold mining activity and quality exploration results — remains undrilled… we see excellent future potential for size and grade at this project.”
Zenith has divested Jackadgery as part of a corporate shift from the gold and base metals space to lithium and battery metals.
Historic workings
Situated within the New England Orogen of northern NSW, the Jackadgery project comprises historic workings including several shallow shafts sunk in the 1870s and large areas of surface gold sluicing.
Sheeted and stockwork quartz veining is widespread over the area of the sluiced colluvial workings, with veins dipping generally eastward and sulphides comprised almost entirely of pyrite-arsenopyrite and pyrrhotite.
The last significant exploration activity was carried out in the 1980s by Kennecott and Southern Goldfields Ltd and included a 220m-long trench into weathered quartz veined bedrock across the main (northern) area of alluvial gold sluicing, averaging 1.2 grams per tonne of gold from up to 160m.
Sample assay repeats of higher-grade zones indicated a degree of variability in results which is believed to be commonly associated with the presence of coarse gold.
Chip channel samples taken across individual quartz veins northwest of the trench returned an average of 5.6g/t gold, while sampling of veins to the southeast averaged 0.8g/t.
More recent exploration has included an induced polarisation (IP) geophysical survey over the trench area which defined a sub-surface chargeability high – resistivity high zone coincident with an identified area of colluvial gold workings and gold-bearing quartz stockwork veins.