Quarterly Activities Report
Sydney, Oct 28, 2015 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Thomson Resources Ltd (
ASX:TMZ) are pleased to provide the Company's quarterly activities report for the period ended 30 September, 2015.
Highlights
- Outstanding drill results at the Bygoo North Tin prospect
- Best intercepts to date include 35m at 2.1% Sn, 10m at 2.0% Sn and 13m at 1.0% Sn
- Multiple similar prospects in the Ardlethan tin field
- Mt Paynter tin-tungsten project granted
Bygoo North Prospect
During the quarter drilling by Thomson confirmed the discovery of a new, high grade tin greisen at its Bygoo North tin prospect located 7km north of the Ardlethan tin mine, south west NSW (Figure 1, in link below).
Thomson drilled 15 RC holes for approximately 1,660m in two programs testing below and along strike from old shallow tin workings discovering high grade tin in three greisen zones, one of which was unknown prior to Thomson drilling.
Exceptional, high grade tin intersections were recorded in drilling (shown in Figure 2, see link below), with the standout intersections as follows:
- BNRC003 - 8m at 0.8% Sn from 118m
- BNRC004 - 5m at 1.3% Sn from 130m
- BNRC010 - 13m at 1.0% Sn from 66m
- BNRC011 - 35m @ 2.1% Sn from 44m including 6m @ 3.1% Sn from 56m, 5m @ 6.0% Sn from 66m, and 4m @ 3.8% Sn from 75m
- BNRC013 - 6m @ 0.8% Sn from 67m, 11m @ 1.4% Sn from 88m, and 10m @ 2.0% Sn from 108m
The good intercepts recorded in BNRC3, 4 and 13 all lie within the main greisen (Greisen B). Work to date by Thomson has defined this greisen zone over an inferred strike length of more than 200m to a depth exceeding 100m (Figure 2, in link below).
The thick, high grade intersections recorded in holes BNRC010 and BNRC011 are within the "hidden" greisen, termed Greisen A, which is interpreted to dip steeply north and sits in the footwall to Greisen B. Modelling work indicates that the BNRC011 intersection is between 10-15m in true thickness.
The BNRC011 intersection contains some impressive grades, with individual metres up to 11.1% Sn. The length of the intersection has provided some good detail on the tin distribution and also shows that deleterious elements are very low or undetectable. This is a consequence of the "clean" occurrence of coarse cassiterite in quartz and feldspar with very little of the sulphide mineralisation that often occurs with tin (and does at Ardlethan).
The forward plan is to define and extend Greisens A, B and C, drilling from north to south. This program should underpin modelling to provide a JORC resource and is planned to take place before the end of the year.
Bygoo Exploration Targets
Several other similar targets on the Bygoo EL also warrant testing. The Bygoo North tin mineralisation is hosted within and adjacent to the Ardlethan Granite which is thought to be responsible for the tin mineralisation in the region. Along the granite contact, between Bygoo North and the Ardlethan mine site several other tin prospects are present including Big Bygoo, Lone Hand and Taylors Hill (Figure 1, in link below). All have shallow historic workings and the latter three have yet to be significantly drill tested with only a handful of holes drilled to date. For example, limited drilling at the Lone Hand workings yielded an intercept of 7.6m at 1.7% Sn from 41m (see note in link below).
Thomson's EL 8260 also includes a small part of the hard rock resource below and adjacent to the Ardlethan mine open-cuts.
Overall the Company believes that EL 8260 has the potential to host a stand-alone tin project. This could be developed either separately or in tandem with a restart of the neighbouring Ardlethan Mine operation.
Byrock Copper-Zinc
A drill hole test of the strong ground EM and VTEM anomaly at Wilga Downs near Byrock has been planned. The anomaly and its geological setting are consistent with a Trittontype volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposit: the Tritton copper mine, operated by Straits Resources, occurs in the same Ordovician age rock package 100km to the southeast. The top of the Tritton orebody is at about 180m below surface and it was discovered by a ground EM survey in 1995.
Mullagalah Aeromagnetic Survey
During the quarter Thomson completed an aeromagnetic survey over an anomaly on EL 8102 (Mullagalah). The survey comprised 1,194 km at a line spacing of 50m, providing high resolution magnetic and radiometric data to detail the prominent anomaly.
EL 8102 is the subject of a farm-in, funded by a private investor who has now earned a 50% interest in the tenement.
The Mullagalah anomaly has previously been explored by YTC Resources Ltd in 2010, which drilled two deep diamond holes near the edge of the anomaly (Figure 4, in link below). Both holes intersected anomalous copper and gold with accompanying mineral alteration of the types often found in intrusion-related mineralisation.
The intrusion is of quartz-granodiorite to tonalite composition, medium-K, calc-alkaline and I-type in character and dated at 414.9 million years old (+/- 4.2Ma, Early Devonian). This is similar in age to the mineralising events that were taking place in the Cobar Basin to the southwest.
The intrusion lies on major structures (blue lines in Figure 4, link below) and its pattern is suggestive of significant deformation, thought to be necessary for the mineralizing process.
Thomson considered that the existing magnetic data was too coarse to provide compelling drill targets and that a high resolution survey was necessary to identify discrete targets. These might be either magnetic highs caused by pyrrhotite related mineralisation or magnetic lows caused by destructive alteration of magnetite to pyritic mineralisation. The detailed magnetic imagery seen in Figure 4 (right hand side) shows ample evidence of potential drill targets.
Mt Paynter Project: tin and tungsten
Thomson was granted exploration licence EL 8392 on October 6th over a significant tintungsten (Sn-W) exploration project at Mt Paynter in southern NSW (Figure 8, in link below). Mt. Paynter is located within the Lachlan Fold Belt within a similar geological setting to Thomson's Ardlethan project.
A small inferred JORC 2004 resource was defined on the Main Lode in 2007 for a previous operator. This comprises 245,000 tons grading 0.45% tungsten and 0.27% tin (1100 tons of tungsten and 660 tons of tin). This information was prepared and first disclosed under the JORC Code 2004. It has not been updated since to comply with the JORC Code 2012 on the basis that the information has not materially changed since it was last reported.
The JORC resource is over a 200m strike length of the Main Lode, which continues to east and west outside the resource area (Figures 5 and 6, in link below). Potential remains to extend the resource east and west, and also down dip.
Additonally, there are several other veins in the area that have not been drill tested.
Previous mining and exploration mainly focused on tin, and there is evidence that tungsten bearing greisens may have been overlooked (Figure 5, in link below).
Small scale mining took place at Mount Paynter between 1873 to 1930, with around 1,200 tons of ore raised and crushed for tin. A smelter chimney was constructed (Figure 7, in link below). One shaft was sunk to a depth of 64m. The exploration adit and sampling crosscuts were completed in 1982, but no production was undertaken. The adit and crosscuts access the Main Lode 183m below the surface outcrop and provide excellent control on the lode position and geometry.
The acquisition of the Mt Paynter tin-tungsten project adds to Thomson Resources strong tin-tungsten portfolio. The Company's top priority at present is the Bygoo project at Ardlethan, where drilling has been successful (see ASX announcement 21 October 2015).
The Company considers that there are strong fundamentals for future increases in tin and tungsten prices, providing high confidence in the significant value that these projects bring to Thomson.
Thomson Fold Belt
Thomson was awarded three drilling grants under the NSW Government's New Frontiers Cooperative Drilling Scheme including for drilling at its discoveries under cover at Cuttaburra A and Cuttaburra B on EL 6224 in the Thomson Fold Belt. However, the grants were not sufficiently attractive ($25,550 and $26,750 respectively) for Thomson to commit to expensive deep drilling in this New Frontier area and the grants (not the ELs) have been allowed to expire. The Government has recently announced a revised scheme for the next round with up to 100% of drilling costs to be reimbursed and Thomson will resubmit these projects for additional funding later in the year.
Tenement Holdings
Thomson holds 720 square kilometres in eight granted titles, with interests in an additional four titles covering 404 square kilometres in the Kidman joint venture and a 50% interest in two further titles covering 124 sq. km in the Mullagalah joint venture. The Mt Paynter EL was granted post end of the quarter on October 6th.
Corporate
Exploration expenditure incurred during the quarter totalled $141,000. Cash at the end of the quarter was $76,000, before a research and development refund of $129,732 that was received after the quarter end. Thomson has no debt and had 87,894,506 shares on issue at end-September.
To view the quarterly activities report, please visit:
http://media.abnnewswire.net/media/en/docs/ASX-TMZ-887873.pdf
About Thomson Resources Ltd
Thomson Resources Ltd (ASX:TMZ) is an NSW active mineral explorer. Thomson has several tin projects (including an advanced project near Ardlethan), as well as gold, copper and zinc targets in a range of settings. Thomson has a good record of discovery, with multiple new Intrusion-Related Gold (gold with copper, lead, zinc, molybdenum, tungsten) systems discovered in the Thomson Fold Belt in the NW of the state.
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