Thomson Resources commences preliminary exploration at Chillagoe gold project
An auger rig will be mobilised at the end of next week to drill 10 priority prospects at the Queensland project.
Australian explorer Thomson Resources (ASX: TMZ) has announced plans to commence a soil auger drilling campaign this month within underexplored areas of the Chillagoe gold project in far north Queensland.
The campaign will be considered part of the company’s preliminary exploration commitment prior to completion of Chillagoe’s acquisition from private owner Bacchus Resources.
Thomson plans to target intrusion-related gold in breccia pipes and intrusion-related copper-gold lodes over 10 priority prospects in an area known for its gold, silver and copper occurrences.
The prospects feature extensive historic workings, multiple rock chips with anomalous gold, copper, silver and base metals, and magnetic anomalies suggestive of pipe-like buried intrusions.
Previous rock chip sampling by Bacchus showed assays including 29 grams per tonne gold and 3,000g/t silver at the Borderline prospect; 7g/t gold and 331g/t silver at Laverock; and 24% copper and 6g/t gold at Salt Creek.
Holes will be drilled using a trayback-mounted soil auger drill at 20m intervals across mineralised trends or magnetic anomalies.
They will be drilled to solid basement and end-of-hole samples will be collected for analysis, with results expected before year end.
Chillagoe acquisition
The Chillagoe tenements are situated 150km west of Cairns and provide Thomson with a suite of projects across Queensland and New South Wales, which are accessible all year round for on-ground exploration.
Thomson made moves to acquire a 90% interest in Chillagoe from Bacchus in early 2019 following the expiration of an unexercised option agreement and using a share consideration over cash.
Bacchus will retain the remaining 10% and be free carried until a decision to mine, at which point it may elect to stay or allow Thomson to acquire its interest for 95% of the fair value.
Chillagoe comprises five granted exploration permits and one exploration permit application over 593sq km in the Chillagoe Formation Limestones region which hosts deposits including Red Dome, Mungana and King Vol.
These deposits are believed to have considerable vertical extent – Red Dome for example, has proven depth continuity to greater than 1,000m.
Thomson said the exploration implication is that most undiscovered deposits of this type will come close to surface, only hidden by weathering and recent alluvial or transported sediments.