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Thunderbird Resources Gears Up for Major Drilling at Kookabookra Gold Project in Northeast NSW

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By Colin Hay - 
Thunderbird Resources ASX THB Major Drilling Kookabookra Gold Project Northeast NSW
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Thunderbird Resources (ASX: THB) is set to accelerate drilling at its Kookabookra gold project in northeast New South Wales on the back of outstanding results from a geophysical survey at the Mt Secret and Mannix prospects.

The survey highlighted three significant chargeability anomalies at Mt Secret and one at Mannix, all of which are close to an untested gold-in-soil anomaly.

As recent work at the Clarks Gully extension of Larvotto Resources’ (ASX: LRV) Hillgrove stibnite-gold project showed, chargeability can be a direct indication of intrusion-related and orogenic gold, where sulphide content commonly has a strong correlation with gold mineralisation.

Drill Planning Underway

The gradient array induced polarisation (GAIP) survey defined several strong anomalies in an area where historical exploration had identified potential that was never followed up, with all previous drilling at Mannix focused on a gold-in-soil anomaly located to the northeast of the newly defined zone.

Thunderbird’s planning for a reverse circulation drilling program to further test the two prospects is well advanced, with the company to integrate the GAIP survey results, along with geochemical soil and rock chip sampling and geological mapping.

“With many of the previous holes having intersected mineralisation, we could consider these historic holes to be a ‘near-miss’ and the current planned drill program will aim to properly test the area for significant gold mineralisation,” executive chair George Ventouras said.

Thunderbird expects to commence drilling at the site later this year once it has obtained the necessary permits.

Bear Hill Test

Thunderbird is also preparing to undertake additional work across Kookabookra, with a particular focus on the Bear Hill prospect, where historical production exceeded 3,000 ounces of gold at grades averaging 28 grams per tonne.

The company has planned follow-up work in the Bear Hill / Butchers Reef area, commencing with geochemical soil sampling and geological mapping.

Meanwhile, Thunderbird’s on-ground exploration program at Kookabookra is continuing with several parallel work programs to identify and prioritise further targets for the company’s maiden drill program there.

“The combination of the results, the highly favourable geology, and the known mineralisation in the area demonstrates that there is clearly immense exploration upside,” Mr Ventouras added.