Talisman Mining Ltd (ASX: TLM) has commenced an extensive auger drill programme to test basement geochemistry across the Central Lachlan Copper-Gold Project in NSW.
The programme is being conducted using in-house equipment purchased by Talisman in 2022, including an Eziprobe 1700 drill rig and Portable PPB’s detectORE analytical technology.
Experienced local field services provider, Williamson Geotechnical, has assisted Talisman with establishing operational procedures and commissioning of the auger rig.
The Eziprobe 1700 drill rig is mounted on a modified Landcruiser 79 series utility and has the capacity to drill a 100mm diameter auger drill-hole and return a basement sample to a depth of up to 20 metres, subject to ground conditions.
As the owner-operator of this equipment, Talisman is able to ensure availability of the drill rig to align with opportunities for land access and approvals and conduct drilling in a more cost-effective and efficient way than utilising a contracted service provider.
It is great to see solid exploration progress on several fronts across our Central Lachlan Project after the weather delays of last year. RC drill testing of identified targets in parallel with ground geophysics to firm up additional targets is progressing well,” CEO, Shaun Vokes, said.
“The ability to conduct our geochemical programs utilising our own equipment and personnel provides Talisman with much greater flexibility and increases our ability to validate targets using geochemistry in a much shorter timeframe. This provides us with a strong pipeline of targets so we can keep the RC rig turning and potentially shorten our discovery timeline.”
The campaign is designed to test basement geochemistry across targets generated by regional geophysical surveys and undertake conceptual structural analysis in areas of shallow post-mineral cover. These areas are considered suitable for cost-effective auger drilling techniques, which can be conducted more rapidly than conventional RC drilling.
Drilling is planned to be conducted across several target areas on Exploration Licences (EL’s) 8414, 8571, 8615, 8677, 8658, 8659 and 8719, with a total of 5,500 auger holes currently planned.
The programme is estimated to take four to five months to complete, depending on final hole depths across each programme, with analysed samples providing a pipeline of ongoing geochemical anomalies for further work.
Talisman intends to complete internally-managed auger drilling programme before assessing options to generate additional income by providing auger drilling services to other third-party explorers. Internal drilling programs will be prioritised at all times.
Base-of-hole samples will be taken from each hole for geochemical analysis. Analytical results for geochemical assays experienced extended turnaround times in 2022, with expected six-week assay returns being delayed by three to four months.
To allow for rapid target generation based on auger drilling programmes, Talisman has partnered with Portable PPB Pty Ltd, an Australian private company holding the exclusive global licence to the CSIRO developed low-level gold by pXRF technology known as detectORE.
The technology is a fast, simple and robust process currently used by a number of Australian mineral explorers and producers to enable the leaching, concentrating and detection of gold from a bulk sample at parts per billion levels with high precision using conventional hand-held XRF instruments.
In conjunction with a standard sample preparation workflow to deliver a representative sub-sample, this will allow Talisman to return a fast (less than 12 hour turnaround) on-site preliminary gold and multi-element geochemistry result to guide real-time exploration, while still allowing follow-up geochemical analysis via commercial assay laboratories.h