Argent Minerals Limited announced the upcoming RC drilling program over The Lachlan Orogen is host to one of the underground gold mines in the Southern Hemisphere, Newcrest's Cadia Valley Operations. The current Cadia Valley Operations Mineral Resource comprises more than 40 million ounces of gold. The region also hosts world-class copper-gold and gold deposits (>100 Mt) such as Northparkes and Cowal. The Kempfield deposit belongs to a peer group of volcanic-hosted massive sulphide (VHMS) deposits located at the margins of geological basins. This peer group is known as the Eastern Australian Palaeozoic VHMS Deposits and includes well-known rich deposits such as Rosebery, Que River, Hellyer, Mt. Lyell, Sunny Corner, McPhillamys, Woodlawn, Captains Flat and Thalanga
(Red River Resources). The growing number of newly identified zones of the Kempfield deposit, along with the major deposit size and increasing lead, zinc, silver and gold grade trends, positions Kempfield with the significant potential to become a major provider of base and precious metals Mineralisation is hosted in stratiform and probably barite-rich horizons occurring in what appear to be a series of tight isoclinal folds. Silver, lead, zinc, gold and barite mineralisation is derived from submarine volcanic exhalations associated with the felsic volcanic activity. The geology and mineral assemblage are consistent with a distal facies of a volcanic-hosted base metals sulphide deposit (VHMS). Primary mineralogy comprises pyrite, chalcopyrite (copper), galena (lead), sphalerite (zinc), tetrahedrite (silver), native silver and pyrargyrite. Silver is present in tetrahedrite, native silver, pyrargyrite, argentite and galena. Seven (7) zones of barite/sulphide
The 2,500m RC drill programme is designed to increase the resource tonnage and grade within the main orebody and satellite.