Todd River Resources Limited (ASX: TRT) has announced an encouraging update from the RC drilling currently underway at its Mt Hardy Copper-Zinc Project in the Northern Territory.
The company reported that the initial RC drilling at Gilly North, 1.5km from the Hendrix deposit, returned thick, high-grade base metal intercepts demonstrating prospectivity of the field and potential for a cluster.
TRT said that assay results are due over the coming weeks for RC drilling undertaken at Hendrix South, Hendrix North West, and Gilly Prospects.
The company reported that RC drilling is continuing at the Linda Jane and Laver prospects and to test for further mineralisation at Gilly North.
Todd River said that the down-hole EM survey crews are planned to be mobilised to site in November for all Prospects
TRT said that the ongoing exploration is underpinned by recently completed $2.9M capital raising.
Todd River’s Managing Director Will Dix said that the outstanding results from the first drilling into a series of newly identified regional targets represent a significant exploration breakthrough for the Company at Mt Hardy.
Mount Hardy project
The Mount Hardy Project is located on the Tanami Highway, 300km north-west of Alice Springs and 20km west of the town of Yuendumu.
The Project comprises several high-grade structurally-controlled precious and base metal oxide and sulphide targets generated from geochemistry and geophysics.
The important prospects of Mt Hardy include Browns, Hendrix South, Hendrix NW, Laver, Jack, Franklin, Linda-Jane, and Gilly.
A robust maiden Inferred base metal Resource of 2.6Mt @ 10.5% Zn equivalent at Hendrix was announced earlier this year.
Expanding potential targets at Mt Hardy
The Company has been focussed on expanding the pipeline of potential targets within the Mt Hardy Project area.
To that end, reconnaissance mapping and rock chip sampling were completed to follow up several historic Cu ± Pb mineral occurrences mapped by the Bureau of Mineral Resources (Geoscience Australia) in 1968.
The company had identified several drilling targets from this follow-up work, together with systematic mapping, prospecting, and sampling. This includes Gilly North (3 holes), Hendrix South (3 holes), Hendrix North West (3 holes) and Gilly Prospects (7 holes).
Outstanding assays from Gilly North
The company announced that the first RC drilling at the Gilly North Prospect, located 1.5km north of Hendrix, returned significant assay results in the first three holes (MHRC0067, MHRC0068, MHRC0069) completed.
Results include 10m @ 1% Cu, 0.4% Pb, 3.6% Zn and 24g/t Ag (5.0% combined base metals) from 5m, including 7m @ 1.4% Cu, 0.6% Pb, 4.7% Zn and 36.4g/t Ag (6.7% combined BM) from 8m (hole MHRC0067); 9m @ 0.6% Cu, 0.1% Pb, 5.5% Zn and 7g/t Ag (6.2% combined base metals) from 36m, including 7m @ 0.7% Cu, 0.1% Pb, 6.1% Zn and 8g/t Ag (6.9% combined BM) from 37m (hole MHRC0068); and 14m @ 1.1% Cu, 0.1% Pb, 3.4% Zn, 8.7g/t Ag (4.6% combined base metals) from 42m, including 7m @ 1.4% Cu, 0.1% Pb, 6.3% Zn and 12.6g/t Ag (7.8% combined BM) from 46m (hole MHRC0069).
The company said that a number of follow-up RC holes will be completed at Gilly North.
Assays from other prospects
The company said that the assay results from the RC drilling undertaken at the Hendrix South (3 holes), Hendrix North West (3 holes) and Gilly Prospects (7 holes) are due in early November.
Updates and next steps
TRT reported that the drilling is continuing at Mt Hardy, with the RC rig currently back at the Gilly North Prospect where additional holes are being completed to test for further mineralisation.
The company said that up to an additional 6-8 holes will be drilled as part of the current campaign, prior to re-assessing the outcomes of the drilling and planning the next exploration program.
Todd River reported that the deepest holes drilled on each prospect have been cased for down-hole EM surveying and it is expected that this work will be completed in November and will greatly assist with planning future drilling.
In parallel with the current drilling program, the Company has also completed re-sampling the end-of-hole sample from a significant number of historical RAB holes drilled through sand cover in the northern half of the project area.
The company said that the assay results from this work are expected to be received shortly and the data will then be assimilated into the project database and analysed to identify additional areas of base metal anomalism.
Management comments
Todd River’s Managing Director Will Dix said: “Since we discovered the Hendrix deposit last year and began to better understand the type of deposit and structural controls of the system, we always had a strong belief that we would find more high-grade mineralisation at Mt Hardy and be able to grow the Resource base through successful exploration. This discovery, at an early stage of our new drilling program, strongly vindicates that view and validates our systematic and focused exploration model.
The current drilling program has already been expanded within our existing drilling permit parameters to expand the zone of mineralisation identified at Gilly North and follow-up work is also already being planned for subsequent programs. Outside of Gilly North, at the Gilly, Linda Jane and the Hendrix Prospects we have assay results due over the coming weeks.
We are experiencing an outstanding exploration strike rate with the drilling undertaken at Mt Hardy and we look forward to continuing this in future programs. With drilling continuing and a large number of assays still outstanding, shareholders can look forward to continued strong news-flow right up until the end of the year and beyond.”
