Argent Minerals Limited (ASX:ARD) is leveraged to a zinc price up circa 60% year to date, thanks to ongoing drilling at the company’s flagship project at Kempfield, New South Wales.
The Kempfield volcanic-hosted massive sulphide (VHMS) project provides investors with exposure to both precious metals being silver and gold together with base metals zinc and lead.
The current diamond drilling program is 1,600 metres and the first hole commenced in late November.
Drilling is targeting potential silver, gold, lead and zinc mineralisation extensions identified by recent drilling.
Drill program
Each hole is planned to a depth of 200 metres totalling 1,600 metres for the eight-hole program.
The current targets are:
- Southern magnetic anomaly – 3 holes;
- Southeast mineralisation extension – 2 holes;
- Northwest mineralisation extension – 2 holes; and
- Quarries depth extension – 1 hole.
Drill site preparations are continuing ahead of schedule with five drill pads completed to date.
The importance of prior drilling
The diamond drill core analyses of the recently completed drill program provide Argent with a leap forward in the understanding of the deposit structure.
A key result of the detailed diamond drill core assessment is the identification of preferentially mineralised horizons that had been strike-slip offset by a laterl (east-west) fault.
An immediate result of this new level of detail is the identification of potentially significant areas of additional mineralisation to the northwest, southeast, and south of the main deposit, currently the focus of drilling.
With the existing JORC resource of 21.8 million tonnes at 75 g/t silver equivalent for 52 million ounces silver equivalent, the additional tonnage potential is significant, and includes the prospect of high grade precious and base metals.
Analysis
Given how much Argent has learnt about Kempfield from the analysis of previous diamond drilling, assays from the ongoing program will be highly anticipated and have high upside potential.
The current drilling leverages Argent to exploration news flow related to both precious and base metal commodities that have experienced price appreciation throughout 2016.
Argent is already well-placed to capture this value, with significant precious metal exposure already in its JORC 2012 resource estimate that hosts:
- 33 million ounces silver;
- 86,000 ounces gold;
- 200,000 tonnes of zinc; and
- 100,000 tonnes of lead.
These figures are exclusive of the yet-to-be potential resource at the historic Pine Ridge gold mine, as well as potential additional mineralisation in the Trunkey Creek goldfields.
Any further potential resources identified by the current drill program could act as a catalyst for Argent.
Not only is zinc the top performing base metal year to date in US dollar terms, having hit fresh highs since March 2008, but the recent depreciation of the Australian dollar to around US$0.75 provides an additional boost which Kempfield is strategically positioned to capture if developed.