Trigg Minerals (ASX:TMG) Commences exploration at ultra high-grade Taylors Arm antimony project

25 September 2024

Price Sensitive Announcement $

Highlights:

• Trigg will commence a systematic maiden exploration program at its recently acquired ultra-high grade Taylors Arm Project (EL 9668) in the New England Orogen in northern NSW.
• The project is considered highly prospective for antimony ± gold mineralisation.
• Trigg remains fully funded to carry out exploration on it’s recently acquired ultra-high grade Antimony Portfolio.
• Trigg’s due diligence highlighted 71 historical workings on granted EL that produced ultra-high-grade antimony. Key workings include:

1. Swallows Nest Mine – extracted antimony from 1940 to 1955 at a 40% antimony (Sb) concentration and 30% Sb on reopening in 1972. Recent rock samples revealed extremely high-grade antimony mineralisation with grades of 29.8% Sb and 31.4% Sb[1].

2. Testers Mine – featured massive stibnite veins grading up to 63% Sb, Australia’s highest-recorded antimony grade.

3. Little Purgatory Mine – stockpile samples produced antimony with grades up to 27.7% Sb.

4. Real McKay Mine – recent exploration identified a stibnite-bearing fault breccia hosting high-grade antimony mineralisation, reporting 15.2% Sb and 52.7% Sb.

• The projects have not had modern systematic exploration carried out, yielding significant exploration upside for Trigg.
• Exploration will focus on data compilation and remote and geophysical surveys to prioritise exploration targets while minimising the impact on the environment and local communities.
• Antimony prices are trading at all-time highs following China’s export ban on some antimony products from 15 September 2024.

Overview:

Trigg Minerals Limited (ASX: TMG) has announced it will commence exploration across its recently acquired ultra-high-grade Taylors Arm Project in northern NSW (Figure 1).

Due diligence completed by Trigg highlighted 71 historical workings, which have seen prior informal mining and extraction in two crucial periods: World War II and the early 1970s. The Swallows Nest, Purgatory, Munga Creek, and Testers Mines yielded economically significant metal grades. For example, the Testers Mine features massive stibnite veins grading up to 63% Sb (Table 1), Australia’s highest-recorded antimony grade.

Despite the widespread nature of these antimony occurrences, exploration efforts have mainly focused on these previously identified zones. There has been no modern, systematic exploration since at least the 1990s. Trigg aims to broaden its scope by exploring the potential for larger-scale deposits across one or more of these occurrences. The goal is to unlock further economic value from this historically productive region.

Exploration Program:

Trigg’s granted Taylors Arm tenement (EL 9668) includes 71 historical workings in six mineral camps, including Taylors Arm, Munga Creek, Toorooka, Pinnacles, Mistake Creek and Purgatory. Many of these camps report high-grade breccia material (with grades exceeding 25% Sb). The widespread occurrence of stibnite (Sb₂S₃), the principal ore for antimony, indicates that the geology is prospective for primary stibnite mineralisation or polymetallic ore or gold-antimony association such as Hillgrove (~75km NW of this location). Host rocks for the quartz-stibnite breccia veins are predominantly Permian-aged metasediments of the Nambucca Beds in the north and Kempsey Beds in the south.

The region’s history displays a lack of systematic mineral exploration, significantly impacting its development potential. Trigg will develop a comprehensive exploration framework by compiling all legacy exploration data into a common database for evaluation, using the physical properties of widespread, polymetallic sulphide mineralisation—such as magnetic, electrical, and density contrasts—that geophysical and other remote sensing methods can effectively detect to create a library of tools and techniques that could unlock untapped resources and ensure more strategic, sustainable exploitation of the region’s mineral assets, whilst minimising environment and community impacts.

Trigg has engaged Dr Neil Pendock (of Dirt Exploration) to complete thermal remote sensing studies across the prospective geology. Satellite thermal imagery (Aster) with Longwave Infrared (“LWIR”) and high spatial resolution Visible Near Infrared (“VNIR”) and shortwave infrared (“SWIR”) (Sentinel-2) imagery may be used to extrapolate known antimony occurrence information from the historical workings within the tenure to the rest of the exploration licence. Identifying minerals in the scene from spectral unmixing may also inform geological understanding of the area.

Regular updates on the exploration program’s progress and results will be provided to the market.

Full ASX Announcement: https://wcsecure.weblink.com.au/pdf/TMG/02856824.pdf