Australian Gold and Copper Ltd (ASX:AGC) has strengthened its South Cobar Project in a largely unexplored section of the prolific Cobar Basin of New South Wales after identifying a new zone of strong gold and base metals anomalism called the Hilltop target.
Initial results at Hilltop highlight the strong potential to host a large, near-surface Cobar-style gold-base metals deposit although the prospect is yet to be effectively drill-tested.
Notably, gold in rock chips grade to an ‘impressive’ 3.5 g/t from outcropping gossanous rock.
In addition, the nine initial rock chip samples were also strongly anomalous in other metals, returning up to 33 g/t silver, 1.0% lead + zinc and 800ppm copper.
Moving forward, AGC will kick off an induced polarisation geophysical survey in the coming weeks to detect the presence of sulphides, following the completion of the current IP survey at the Achilles target to the north.
“Great example of progress”
AGC managing director Glen Diemar said: “AGC aims to have at least three exceptional Cobar-style, drill-ready targets once this IP survey is complete.
“Hilltop is another great example of the progress we are making in the Southern Cobar Basin.
“The target is south along strike from major recent discoveries such as Federation and Mallee Bull and demonstrates just how prospective our ground is when subjected to modern systematic exploration.”
“With IP well underway at Achilles and later this month starting here at Hilltop, we will soon have another new dataset highlighting potential drill targets.
“Federation was discovered using a combination of lead in soils and IP geophysics prior to drilling; that is exactly what we are hoping to replicate.
“Multiple coincident datasets such as soil and rock chip geochemistry and IP geophysics rapidly lower the drilling risk and increase the probability of a major discovery. Drilling a discovery is our aim in 2023.”
Target (NYSE:TGT) highlights
Hilltop was identified by target generation and regional reconnaissance, followed by soil and rock chip sampling through new licence EL 9336.
The target area includes a 0.5 by 1.0-kilometre outcropping zone characterised by intensely sheared and quartz-sericite-chlorite altered volcano-sedimentary rocks
Hilltop is more than four kilometres long with outcropping rocks on the hills where lead in soils was first identified by previous explorers.
The prospective geochemistry is hosted in sheared, quartz-sericite-chlorite altered volcaniclastic rocks that abut coherent, blocky rhyolite.