Trigg Mining resumes ‘pivotal’ drilling at Lake Throssell after weather interruption
At Lake Throssell, Trigg Mining will carry out a further 22 holes over the next few weeks.
Sulphate of potash (SOP) hopeful Trigg Mining (ASX: TMG) has restarted drilling at its flagship Lake Throssell project in Western Australia after bad weather in December brought the program to a temporary halt.
In all, 16 holes had been completed for 1,806m — about 40% of the program — during December before bad weather hit the area.
Now the air-core drill is back in action with 22 holes to be drilled over the next few weeks.
The air-core holes will be drilled to depth at Lake Throssell and will target the aquifer within the recently discovered palaeovalley underlying the salt lake.
The remaining holes will target mainly the untested southern portion of the project and expand on brine results from initial drilling which returned grades up to 11,519 milligrams per litre (mg/L) SOP, with an average grade of 9,772mg/L SOP.
By then the drilling will have covered the palaeovalley over a strike length of about 33km.
Maiden resource will follow drill program
A maiden JORC mineral resource estimate is expected to be released once the aircore drilling is complete and all results have been received and interpreted.
Managing director Keren Paterson says the drilling will give Trigg its “first good look” at the basal aquifer at the southern portion of the project.
The drilling is also expected to generate sufficient data to underpin a maiden inferred resource, she added.
“In the lead-up to that significant milestone we expect to receive assay results from the drilling and also to publish our maiden JORC exploration target for Lake Throssell — all of which will help to give investors a sense of the scale of the commercial opportunity in front of us.”
In August, Trigg announced it had discovered the large scale palaeovalley at the project, which is a structure defined as a remnant of an inactive river or stream channel that has been filled or buried by younger sediment.
Then, in September, the company lodged a new tenement application to enlarge Lake Throssell to 937 square kilometres.
The new ground application includes interpreted extensions to the south of the recently discovered palaeovalley, including a large interpreted bend in the paleochannel.
The project is located 170km east of Laverton on the Great Central Road connecting Laverton to Alice Springs.
Trigg has described the drilling program as “pivotal”.
Meanwhile, Ms Paterson does not expect new COVID-19 restrictions in Western Australia to have any impact on the Lake Throssell operation as it is outside the lockdown areas and the field crews are already on site.