Thunderbird boosts gold footprint in NSW with new ground

Thunderbird Resources has expanded its gold footprint in New South Wales by lodging an application for a strategic 118 square kilometres of ground to extend its Kookabookra gold project immediately to the east.

On the back of last month’s high-grade gold and antimony hits at its Rockvale project to the south, the company is doubling down on its gold presence in NSW.

It believes Kookabookra could host an intrusion-related gold system similar to the kind of deposits that have delivered multi-million-ounce hauls at places such as Fort Knox in Alaska and Kidston in Queensland.

The additional licence lies west of the company’s existing Kookabookra tenure and brings the project total to some 250 square kilometres. Thunderbird says the new area encompasses ground underlain by Wards Mistake and Black Knob Monzogranites, which are Permian/Triassic intrusive rocks considered prospective for intrusion-related gold mineralisation.

The new ground also extends the company’s coverage over the historic Mt Secret and Mannix prospects, where previous drilling intersected gold whiffs, including 17 metres at 0.43 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 10m at Mt Secret and 12m at 0.53g/t from the same depth at Mannix. 

Soil sampling has identified a gold anomaly that remains open to the north and south, suggesting further exploration potential.

Fieldwork at Rockvale is set to start later this month, following successful negotiations with the local landowners, a process the company notes has required significant effort. Thunderbird is also preparing to begin on-the-ground work at Kookabookra, when land access agreements are in place. The work is slated to kick off in April. 

Thunderbird Resources executive chairman George Ventouras said: “With the potential to host IRGS, Thunderbird is focussing its on-ground plans to explore this exciting area. With almost 250 square kilometres of tenure and other areas under review, the company is intent on creating a district-scale land package to provide prospectivity for gold and antimony exploration.”

Kookabookra is 50km north of Larvotto Resources’ emerging 7.3 million tonnes at 4.4g/t gold and 1.3 per cent antimony Hillgrove project in the active New England Orogen. The project is also 100km south of the nearby 397,000-ounce Timbarra deposit. 

Historical records from Timbarra suggest the goldfield and the quartz veins at Kookabookra reach the daylight for up to 150m across the project. 

Previous exploration at Mt Secret and Mannix, conducted between 2012 and 2018, included soil sampling, geophysics and shallow drilling and identified gold in fractured, quartz-veined granite. The grades from these efforts were modest, however, Thunderbird believes the system could extend deeper, noting that most historical holes stopped within 60m.

Thunderbird’s broader Rockvale and Kookabookra projects position it in a well-regarded gold-antimony district at a time when both commodities are humming. Gold prices broke through US$3000 (A$4700) an ounce for the first time this week and antimony is still trading above US$85,000 (A$133,000) a tonne, driven by supply constraints. 

Beyond NSW, Thunderbird’s portfolio includes a swath of uranium projects in Canada’s mighty Athabasca Basin. The company is racking up the uranium targets following recent electromagnetic surveys to identify prominent basement conductors over its flagship Cluff Lake project.

The Basin is known for its remarkable average uranium grades of about 2 per cent and its massive-scale deposits, which have churned out 20 per cent of the world’s primary uranium production over the past 60 years. 

As exploration ramps up, the company’s next steps at Kookabookra and Rockvale will be closely watched for signs of a resource-defining breakthrough. The new ground is seemingly just another feather in Thunderbird’s enviable cap of uranium and gold projects.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au