Thomson Resources advances ‘hub and spoke’ strategy at eastern seaboard projects

Thomson Resources (ASX: TMZ) has spent the three-month period to end June primarily focused on the advancement of exploration activities within the New England Fold Belt and Lachlan Fold Belt along Australia’s eastern seaboard.

The company said its primary focus had been on its aggressive ‘hub and spoke’ strategy to create a large precious, base and technology metals (silver, gold, zinc, copper, lead and tin) resource hub which will be developed and centrally-processed.

The key projects which underpin the strategy have been strategically acquired by Thomson over a short period of time since late-2020 and include the Webbs, Conrad and Texas District silver projects and an earn-in agreement with White Rock Minerals (ASX: WRM) at the Mt Carrington silver-gold project.

Thomson is targeting an aggregate mineral inventory of 100 million ounces of silver equivalent within its New England Fold Belt portfolio and available to a central processing facility.

The company said it is well on its way to achieving this target with current combined mineral resource estimates of 87.1Moz silver equivalent for Texas District, Conrad, Webbs and the Strauss/Kylo deposits at Mt Carrington.

There are a number of targets within the Mt Carrington project which have existing estimates published by White Rock; however, Thomson said it is planning a review and update.

Mt Carrington earn-in

During the reporting period, Thomson and White Rock restructured the original Mt Carrington earn-in agreement signed early last year.

The agreement now has a two-stage exploration earn-in and joint venture option and allows Thomson to focus expenditure on the advancement of Mt Carrington’s polymetallic potential to earn up to a 70% stake in the project.

Lachlan Fold Belt strategy

Thomson has also progressed exploration activities with its Lachlan Fold Belt portfolio in New South Wales where an earlier-stage ‘hub and spoke’ centralised processing strategy is being developed incorporating the Yalgogrin and Harry Smith gold projects, the Bygoo tin project and future projects within the region.

During the quarter, the company received partial assay results from drilling at Bygoo, which successfully extended the Stewarts greisen discovered last year.

Best intercepts were 17m at 0.9% tin from 129m; 23m at 1% tin from 62m; and 13m at 0.4% tin from 45m.

Drilling at Yalgogrin focused on extending the Bursted Boulder and Shelly occurrences; however, continued rain forced the program to be terminated after four holes.

In Queensland, the company completed a high-resolution aeromagnetic survey west of the Chillagoe project with a focus of defining intrusion-related mineralisation targets.

The survey was partially funded by a $100,000 grant under the state government’s collaborative exploration initiative.

Share placement

Thomson today announced it has entered into a $2.25 million share placement agreement with Lind Global Fund II LP.

Under the terms, Thomson will issue 80 million shares to Lind at a price of $0.0198 each at or before the advance payment date which has been determined to be within five business days after the execution date.

Lind is prohibited from selling any shares during the 60-day period following the advance payment date.

Thomson executive chairman David Williams said funds will be put towards continued progress of the New England Fold Belt ‘hub and spoke’ strategy.

“Lind has supported us in previous placements and has become familiar with and the New England Fold Belt hub and spoke strategy,” he said.

“To have Lind now supporting us with a direct investment as a meaningful stakeholder is fantastic.”