Alkane Resources (ASX: ALK) has received core drilling results from targets below the open cut resource at the San Antonio deposit around the company’s Tomingley Gold Operations in NSW which suggest a steep plunge to potential underground mineable mineralisation.
“The broader Tomingley region has many occurrences of gold mineralisation. As well as potential mine extensions of our existing undergrounds we are doing early-stage work on identifying new mining areas,” Managing Director, Nic Earner, said.
The Tomingley Gold Project (TGP) covers approximately 440 sq. km stretching 60 km north-south along the Newell Highway from Tomingley in the north, through Peak Hill and almost to Parkes in the south. The TGP contains Alkane’s currently operating Tomingley Gold Operations, an open pit and underground operation with a 1Mtpa processing facility with a mine life that extends beyond 2030.
Over several years, Alkane conducted an extensive regional exploration program that led to the definition of Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources of the Roswell and San Antonio deposits, separate from the established resources and reserves at Tomingley.
Alkane completed a 2.7 km long drive from the Wyoming One open cut to Roswell and commenced underground mining of stope ore in April 2024. Roswell and San Antonio now form part of the Tomingley operations, with the processing of ore mined from underground at Roswell continuing.
The exploration focus at Tomingley is to define additional underground resources and reserves for the operation. The San Antonio mineralisation is largely hosted within an andesite volcanic unit, which is similar to that hosting the orebodies at Roswell and Tomingley.
An initial open pit operation was designed based on a Probable Ore Reserve of 4.1 million tonnes grading 1.6g/t Au (214 koz) within the Indicated and Inferred Resources of 7.32 million tonnes grading 1.73g/t Au (406 koz). Further underground potential is yet to be assessed.
Central to and below the planned open cuts, a separate monzodiorite unit is located 50m west of the main andesite. The western monzodiorite hosts Inferred mineralisation domains defined by only four core drill holes. The lateral and deeper extensions to the western monzodiorite mineralisation domains were tested by five diamond core drill holes for a total of 2,968 metres.
