Thomson Resources Ltd (ASX: TMZ) announced that its drilling rig has completed the Phase 3 drilling program at the Harry Smith gold project in the Lachlan Fold Belt in NSW.
TMZ’s Phase 3 drilling program at Harry Smith gold project had concluded with 15 holes for an aggregate of 1,950 metres drilling. The company said that the assays from phase 3 drilling are expected in 2-3 weeks.
The company said that the rig has now mobilised to Mallee Hen gold prospect that includes a historical mine and will soon undertake maiden drilling. The company said that the drilling rig will then move to the tin projects in the Lachlan Fold Belt NSW.
Drilling completed at Harry Smith project
The company announced that it has completed the drilling of 15 Reverse Circulation (RC) holes (HSRC26 – HSRC40) for an aggregate of 1,950 metres at the Harry Smith Gold Project at New South Wales’ renowned Lachlan Fold Belt. The company said that the drilling was done using Australian Mineral & Waterwell Drilling (AMWD) multi-purpose drilling rig 1.
The drilling targeted a number of areas identified for follow up from the December 2020 RC drill program. TMZ said that the assay results are expected in 2-3 weeks.
Maiden drilling at Mallee Hen prospect
TMZ announced that the AMWD drilling rig has now mobilised to the Mallee Hen gold prospect in the Lachlan Fold Belt in NSW. The company said that the maiden drilling program at the Mallee Hen gold prospect would commence soon and would undertake 6 shallow RC holes.
Mallee Hen mine
Mallee Hen is about 15km NE of the Harry Smith gold project and includes a historical mine. The historic Mallee Hen mine lies 18km south of Ardlethan and was worked up until 1917. Described as “exceptionally rich” in contemporary reports, the quartz vein was worked with 2 shafts and on four levels to a depth of 52m, and recorded production was over 5,000 ounces of gold.
Previous exploration programs
TMZ said that modern exploration at Mallee Hen had comprised only sparse rock chip sampling and one line of soil samples. The soil sampling was on one line, 20m NW of the main shaft. Samples were 10m spaced and returned up to 0.86 g/t Au. Four sieve size fractions were analysed by Fire assay at ALS in Orange. Eight of the 12 samples returned highly anomalous gold results.
The company said that no follow-up was undertaken at the time as the results were viewed as possibly due to contamination. No drilling has taken place at this historic gold mine.
Next steps
The company said that after completion of the maiden drill program at Mallee Hen, drilling rig will then move to the tin projects in the Lachlan Fold Belt NSW. The company said that drilling rig will first mobilise to the Bygoo tin project to perform resource and extensional drilling and will then move, if time permits, to Bald Hill to follow up previous drilling intercepts.
* Image source: Thomson Resources Ltd
