Argent Minerals Gets Regulatory Go-Ahead for Maiden Drilling at Trunkey Gold Project

Argent Minerals (ASX: ARD) has received regulatory approval for the start of maiden drilling at the Trunkey Creek gold project southeast of its flagship Kempfield silver project in New South Wales.

Approval clears the way for the company to move Trunkey from surface exploration into systematic Phase 1 diamond and reverse circulation drill testing comprising 10 holes over 1,000 metres, with holes drilled to intersect interpreted westerly dipping structures.

Drilling will provide the first systematic test of those targets and the first opportunity to determine whether Trunkey’s strong surface gold mineralisation continues at depth.

It represents the culmination of a progressive exploration program that has defined a 4.7km mineralised structural corridor, returned gold grades as high as 1,930 grams per tonne from rock chip sampling, and identified multiple structural and mapping targets associated with historic workings.

High-Grade Production History

Trunkey Creek has a history of high-grade gold production dating from the 1850s, when miners developed numerous quartz reefs along the corridor and mineralised structures remained largely untested below the water table.

Historical records indicate mining ceased in areas where mineralisation was still improving because of groundwater inflows, rather than exhaustion of the gold-bearing structures.

Argent’s modern exploration has progressively rebuilt the project’s geological picture, confirming widespread mineralisation associated with quartz veining and historical workings and subsequent programs that extended the mineralised footprint and continued to return high-grade gold, including a recent result of 73.3g/t.

These results have been combined with structural mapping and interpretation of historical data to generate a series of priority targets beneath and adjacent to the historical workings.

Modern Drill-Ready Targets

Chief executive officer Mike McKevitt said exploration had transformed Trunkey from a historical goldfield into a series of modern, drill-ready targets.

“What makes Trunkey particularly interesting is that this goldfield has never been systematically tested with modern drilling—we are therefore starting with a disciplined program focused on our highest-priority targets, while retaining the ability to expand quickly if drilling validates what the historical record, surface sampling, and surface mapping are indicating.”

“With Trunkey located only approximately 9km by road from our major Kempfield silver-polymetallic project, a meaningful gold discovery would add an important dimension to our growing precious and base metals footprint in this highly prospective part of NSW.”

Mr McKevitt said Argent had flexibility to expand the maiden campaign to between 10,000m and 20,000m should results validate the high-grade surface mineralisation and underlying structural targets.