Ankündigung • Nov 16
Talisman Mining Ltd Appoints Drilling Services Provider Resolution Drilling Pty Ltd (Resolution) to Undertake A Significant Drilling Program
Talisman Mining Ltd. announced that it has appointed drilling services provider Resolution Drilling Pty Ltd. (Resolution) to undertake a significant drilling program commencing in January 2023 at the Company's Central Lachlan Copper-Gold Project in NSW. The planned drill program, comprising approximately 8,000m of Reverse Circulation (RC) and 600m of diamond core drilling, has been designed to test the highest-priority geophysical anomalies identified across four tenements, with the aim of identifying massive sulphide mineralisation thought to be the source of these conductive responses. In addition to these maiden drilling programs across eight AEM (conductivity anomaly) and two AGG (gravity anomaly) targets, further work is planned on the Kaolin Shaft polymetallic and Elaine/Babinda copper prospects, with the overall program expected to be by far the largest to be undertaken by Talisman since it first entered NSW. The majority of NSW Government department approvals for the planned program have been received, with the last few expected to be received by the end of 2022. Subject to weather conditions and landholder consent for access, the drill program will commence in mid-January 2023. Resolution is a locally-owned exploration drilling services provider based in Parkes, NSW, and is well experienced with ground conditions and landholders throughout Talisman's tenure portfolio. With a range of specialised drilling equipment and access to local support services, Talisman looks forward to partnering with Resolution to successfully deliver this drilling program. Exploration Activities Update; Due to ongoing inclement weather causing heavy rainfall in the NSW Central West, ongoing land access delays have been experienced which has limited on-ground exploration activities across Talisman's priority target areas. As widely reported in the media, the coincidence of a La Nina event and a positive Indian Ocean Dipole has resulted in rainfall levels since January 2022 significantly exceeding the previous 20 years of rainfall records across Talisman's entire Central Lachlan Project. Additional rainfall continues to affect already saturated areas, leading to high levels of run-off and flooding throughout the Central West. Local government authorities from the Cobar, Lachlan and Bogan Shire Councils have regularly closed unsealed shire roads used for access to Talisman's project areas. After extensive consultation with local landholders, Talisman has decided to defer access by all exploration vehicles to their properties until dryer conditions enable access without the potential to cause damage to pastoral lands and access infrastructure. Accordingly, Talisman has been progressing low impact, low-cost exploration only on areas where access can be maintained to the property by sealed roads and work areas can be safely accessed by foot. This work includes geological mapping, outcrop geochemistry using rock chip sampling and portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF), regolith geochemistry and the acquisition of UAV ortho-imagery. This preliminary low impact ground-based work will assist with the planning and execution of proposed and future drill programs to maximise effectiveness. Prospect Pipeline and Planned Drilling Program As previously announced, Talisman's large-scale geophysical surveys completed during the first half of the year, together with the ongoing geochemical sampling programs over Talisman's Central Lachlan Project, have so far identified more than 31 additional base and precious metals prospects of interest which are being systematically evaluated. Ground-truthing and further interpretive work by Talisman's geological team has established at least 9 of these prospects as drill-ready targets. Talisman's scheduled January 2023 drilling program will systematically evaluate these targets and aims to drill test those highly prospective geophysical targets which have progressed through initial on-ground screening. Multiple additional targets are being further developed towards being drill ready through workstreams of auger drilling, geochemical sampling and ground geophysics. Geophysical responses from conductive anomalies have been modelled into Maxwell plate models by Talisman's geophysical consultants, Southern Geoscience Consultants (SGC). These plate models represent the best fit for a theorised conductive body providing the response seen in the survey and are considered industry standard for generating drill targets from Airborne Electro-Magnetic (AEM) datasets. Talisman's planned RC drilling program has been designed to test eight separate plate models identified by SGC, with two plate models located on each of Exploration Licences EL8414, EL8658, EL8680 and EL9298. Additionally, drilling programs are proposed to test a high-priority gravity anomaly on EL9298 generated from the Falcon Airborne Gravity Gradiometry (AGG) survey1, and follow up on a potential high-grade extension of the main Kaolin Shaft Prospect . The planned drill program also includes a small diamond drilling program at the Elaine Copper Prospect, located near the Babinda Copper Prospect, where hydrothermal vein-hosted copper mineralisation was intersected by Talisman's drilling earlier this year. The Elaine Copper Prospect is centred around two historic small-scale shafts which targeted oxide copper mineralisation. Mapping and sampling programs conducted by Talisman have led to the identification of structural lineaments and copper sulphide mineralisation located in lithologies surrounding the shaft location. The Elaine Copper Prospect is co-located with a focused AGG and airborne magnetic anomaly, suggesting that the sub-surface geology is more complex than the surface expression suggests. Excavated material sampled by Talisman geologists has been observed to contain disseminated copper sulphides (bornite & chalcopyrite), suggesting that historic mining stopped at the base of oxidation and sulphide mineralisation continues. Hand samples have returned highly anomalous Cu, Zn and As. Base metal sulphides are associated with intense hydrothermal brecciation, indicating that a large-scale concealed hydrothermal system is associated with mineralisation at the Elaine and Babinda Copper Prospects.