Critical Resources Ltd (ASX:CRR) will kick off its first drill campaign at the Amoco gold-antimony project in New South Wales’ Armidale region next month, targeting a priority structural corridor defined by high-grade surface sampling.
The company has confirmed its drill contractor will mobilise to site on September 28, with drilling slated to begin in early October following receipt of soil-geochemistry results to finalise collar locations. All approvals from the NSW Resources Regulator and landholder have been secured.
Targeting high-grade system
The maiden program will test an interpreted corridor where surface assays have returned standout results, including gold up to 17.9 g/t, antimony up to 0.7% and silver up to 53.1 g/t.
Recent field mapping across the Amoco licence has further reinforced the prospectivity, confirming mineralisation over a 1-kilometre east–west strike and identifying a new zone around 350 metres south of the historical trend. Fifteen rock chip samples taken earlier this year all returned anomalous gold above 0.8 g/t, with grades as high as 15.1 g/t, correlating with legacy sampling.
Location Plan of recent (circles) and legacy rock chip (squares) samples with interpreted major/minor structures from aeromagnetic survey (black dashed).
Soil sampling wrapped up in July across several structural corridors, with assays pending. These results are expected to support drill design and increase confidence in targeting.
Strong regional context
Amoco sits in the New England Fold Belt, a proven antimony-gold terrain around Armidale. The project lies about 19 kilometres southeast of Larvotto Resources’ Hillgrove Antimony-Gold Project and 14 kilometres east of Koonenberry Gold’s Enmore Project, which has delivered encouraging exploration success.
The fold belt hosts multiple, closely spaced fault systems with potential to extend mineralisation both laterally and at depth, underscoring Critical Resources’ scale opportunity.
The progress at Amoco follows Critical Resources’ recent move into New Zealand, where the company secured a strategic gold-antimony position in Otago through acquisitions including the drill-ready Cap Burn permit and four additional applications, providing low-cost entry into one of the country’s premier mineral districts.
Read more: Critical Resources secures strategic gold-antimony position in New Zealand’s premier Otago region
'Compelling opportunity'
Critical Resources chief executive officer Tim Wither said the upcoming program was a significant step forward.
“In addition to the exciting New Zealand gold-antimony acquisitions, the company has not taken its foot off progressing towards the maiden drill program at Amoco,” he said.
“The Amoco target represents a compelling opportunity within the Armidale region’s rich history of antimony-gold production, and recent success at Koonenberry’s Enmore gold project highlights the opportunity at Amoco.
“The maiden drill program will give us a significant amount of insight into the potential at Amoco, and we look forward to updating shareholders once drilling has commenced.”
Next steps
- Soil geochemistry assay results are due shortly, to support drill collar definition.
- Drill contractor mobilisation is scheduled for September 28, with drilling expected to commence in early October.
- The company is also advancing approvals for its nearby Mayview antimony-gold project.
Critical Resources is also active at its Mavis Lake lithium project in Ontario, Canada, and holds the Hall Peak base metals project in NSW.
Location Plan of Critical Resources - Halls Peak tenure and regionally significant Hillgrove and Enmore with regional structures.