TNT Mines banking on gold success at Eureka and Warriedar in Western Australia

TNT Mines (ASX:TIN) is banking on exploration success at two underexplored gold projects, Eureka and Warriedar, in well-known mining districts of Western Australia with both featuring historic high-grade production and close to operating gold mills. Eureka and Warriedar have granted mining leases in place on core project areas, have walk-up drill targets already defined and are close to established infrastructure. Both projects represent opportunities for rapid delineation of large shallow high-grade gold resources. At Eureka, the company is about to complete 12,000 metres of reverse circulation (RC) drilling while at Warriedar, it is awaiting program of work approval for a first-pass drill program. With a cash balance of $4.7 million on December 31, 2020, partly due to the completion of a $3.9 million share placement, the company is well funded for its 2021 exploration activities. Work at Eureka Eureka Project comprises five tenements including four mining leases and an exploration permit to the west of existing pit ground. The company’s initial focus is at and around an existing JORC 2012 indicated and inferred mineral resource of 762,000 tonnes at 1.80 g/t gold for 43,100 ounces of contained gold. These resources have been estimated by independent consulting resource geologist Richard Maddocks based on historical and recent drilling at the project. Best results to date include 34 metres at 1.75g/t gold in WRRC0081, 14 metres at 2.09 in WRRC0001 and 4 metres at 6.56 g/t in hole WRRC0082 within the southern pit extension area. The company has finished minimal exploration outside the known pit area and the initial RC drilling program is now nearing completion with more than 8,000 metres carried out by early February. Near pit exploration The company has tested four main areas and to date, only 30% of assays have been returned with results from the majority pending. With the intention to expand drilling to 12,000 metres, the company aims to complete a resource update in the second quarter of 2020 on the Main Lode and Laterite areas. Drilling ongoing The company has started drilling on northern target areas and has received assays for four holes with results awaited for 15 further holes after which the company will design a program for further drilling. TNT intersected mineralisation close to contact with large cross-cutting gabbro dykes in two of the holes with assays pending. Mineralisation is open to north and south of existing old workings with best results including 5 metres at 2.88 g/t gold including 1-metre at 10.58 g/t from 27 metres in thick quartz vein. Warriedar project The Warriedar project consists of around 45 square kilometres of highly prospective Archaean terrain, with a contiguous tenement package of one core mining lease, one prospecting licence and four exploration leases covering 42 blocks. This project also is largely underexplored and includes Reids Ridge Mine that consists of walk-up drill targets for which the company is awaiting program of work approval from authorities to carry out first-pass drilling. TNT is particularly hopeful for Reids Ridge and Commodore targets as both are relatively little explored with existing workings and high-grade structures. They consist of 10 large faults mappable over three kilometres in length with multiple gold occurrences. At Reids Ridge, the company plans to undertake an initial drilling program of 5,000 metres in the current quarter designed to step out from known high-grade intercepts. Besides this, the company also plans to test regional targets in 2021 which includes Mt Laws extension and Langs Find. TNT is also planning to undertake an aircore drilling program designed to test geochemical anomalies across BIF horizons and an RC program to test the southern strike extent of Golden Eagle. Besides these two projects, the company also has exposure to US uranium and zinc through the highly prospective East Canyon Project in southeastern Utah and the Pelley Ridge Project in Montana.