Gold discovery in first drill
TechGen Metals Ltd (ASX:TG1) has confirmed a gold discovery from surface at its John Bull Gold Project, within the New England Orogen in northern NSW.
Assays results released today follow a maiden RC drilling program of 7 holes for 887m — the first drilling ever to be completed within the project area. Completion of this drilling program was a key objective that we wanted to see the company achieve in the current year.
The results revealed another broad zone of mineralisation with high grade intercepts and that the mineralisation remains open in all directions.
TG1 reported that all 7 drill holes of the program returned intercepts of greater than 1 g/t gold.
This included a number of exceptionally broad gold intersections, including 66m grading 1.14 g/t, and 17m at 1.08 g/t gold from 109m (in hole JBRC006).
Previously, on 1 September, TG1 reported that assays from drill hole JBRC001 returned 68m at 1.0 g/t gold from surface. This included a zone of higher-grade gold mineralisation — 23m grading 2.02g/t gold from 39m downhole (in JBRC001).
Grading above 2.0 g/t sees the result fall within our Bull Case expectations for the drilling program.
This cross section view shows the assay results from all 7 holes, the drill hole locations and geology:
As the discovery is from surface, the gold is more easily accessible, meaning it could be amenable to a lower cost open pit mine if developed which is faster and cheaper to build than an underground mine.
This map shows drill hole locations, previous exploration, geology and the JBRC001 intercept:
The maiden drilling program was completed along a single approximately east-west oriented drill line and thus TG1 believes that significant along-strike potential, to both the north and south, exists within the project area.
What’s next? TG1 is now planning further exploration activities to assess the size potential of the mineralised system discovered and to explore the remainder of the project area, which has only had minimal historic exploration.
