The Sunny Corner Tenements cover an area of approximately 200.1 square kilometres around the village of Sunny Corner located about 6 kilometres north of the Great Western Highway , between Lithgow and Bathurst in New South Wales.
EL 5964 contains the historic Sunny Corner Mine, which was mined for silver in the years 1881 to 1893, as well as other prospects including the historic Nevada Mine which was mined for silver, lead and copper.
Argent announced on 12 August 2008 the following Inferred Resource at the Sunny Corner exploration licence, click here to view the ASX announcement "Initial Resource at Sunny Corner".
1.5 million tonnes @ 2.1% lead, 3.7% zinc, 0.4% copper, 0.3 g/t gold and 24 g/t silver containing:
• 32,200 tonnes of lead;
• 55,800 tonnes of zinc;
• 5,700 tonnes of copper;
• 12,640 ounces of gold; and
• 1.2 million ounces of silver.
The resource estimate has been estimated by Hellman and Schofield Pty Ltd (“H&S”) and reported using a cut-off grade of 2.5% combined base metals (CBM) using data derived from Golden Cross Operations Pty Ltd’s (GCO) 2004 drilling campaign and Argent’s three hole June 2007 drilling programme.
The GCO campaign comprised 49 RC holes for a total of 4090 metres drilled beneath and adjacent to the historical Sunny Corner silver mine which is reported to have produced 210,000 tons @ 13.8 ounces of silver per ton for 2.9 million ounces of silver between 1881 and 1893.
The flat lying to 20-30° westerly dipping resource has a strike length of approximately 260 metres, a width of 230 metres and an average thickness of 6.5 metres (see the cross section 63028720N). The resource is partially open 120m to the south with hole GSC010 containing 20 metres of 3% CBM.
The mineralization is Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS) style and lies between 12 and 30 metres from the surface making it likely to be amenable to open pit mining. The mineralization comprises fresh, massive pyrite with sphalerite, galena and chalcopyrite hosted by silicified siltstones with rhyolites in the footwall.
The southern extent of the known mineralisation at Sunny Corner is marked by a fault with strata on the south side displaced downwards relative to the strata on the north side. The extent of mineralisation in the strata on the southern side of this fault has yet to be tested. The extent of the mineralisation at Nevada also remains to be fully defined.
In December 2008 a programme of 5 diamond holes were drilled to obtain samples for metallurgical testing and density calculations. Assay results were released on 1 April 2009 click here to view the ASX announcement "Assay results for Sunny Corner Metallurgical Holes".
In March 2009 Argent drilled five diamond holes at Sunny Corner to obtain samples for metallurgical (flotation) testing. Testing has now been completed and the results indicate that recovery of over 97% of contained base and precious metals was readily achieved to a 30% by weight bulk concentrate grading 20.5% Zn, 8.8% Pb, 2.3% Cu, and 180g/t Ag. Attempts, including fine grinding to 6 microns, were unsuccessful in achieving saleable zinc, copper or lead concentrates with acceptable recoveries.
The company will now seek markets for the bulk concentrate and will investigate alternative means, including hydrometallurgical, to liberate the individual metals. At the same time a review of the exploration potential, including follow up of the VTEM anomalies identified last year, will be undertaken with the aim of identifying potential drill targets.