Argent Minerals Limited announced the results from a geochemical and IP geophysical review over its 100% Trunkey Creek Gold Project. The Trunkey Creek Project (EL5748 - total area 59.7 km2) is located over the township of Trunkey approximately 38km southwest of Bathurst in NSW. Access to the licence is through bitumen roads from Bathurst or through bitumen and dirt roads from Blayney.

The areas were first discovered in 1851 and worked from 1852 to 1880, and then again from 1887 to 1908. By 1873, there were 2,500 people at Trunkey and nearby Tuena with many rich veins being mined for gold. Trunkey Creek is situated in the Hill End Synclinal Zone which is bounded nearby to the west by the Copperhania Thrust.

Along with the underlying Crudine and Mumbil Groups these rocks are folded into the Trunkey Creek Syncline. The gold mineralisation is in the form of near vertical to steep westerly dipping quartz veining along faults parallel to bedding surfaces within schistose carbonaceous shales and phyllites. There is minor sandstone interbedded with slate and phyllites.

Within the project area, thin talus rick, skeletal soil and shallow alluvium flank broad drainage flats, which have been extensively worked for alluvial gold. The mineral field extends for about 5.5 km and in general is approximately 250m in width and in other areas where the zone is up to 500m wide. Almost all hard rock workings strike north and are hosted in bedding and/or cleavage parallel structures.

The sub-parallel main quartz reefs are spaced 30m to 50m apart over a strike length of 2 km. The distribution of shafts along the reef indicates two main centres of mineralisation. Other workings suggest the presence of occasional spur veins between the lodes.

The gold mineralisation occurs with pyrite in the quartz and patchy trace arsenopyrite and galena. Gold mineralisation is sporadic and probably has a pronounced nugget effect requiring bulk samples for representative sampling. Grades have been estimated to be between 12 and 20 g/t Au based on historical mining records.

Some grades at depth yield close to 3 oz/t from ore quartz and mullock ran 3.3 g/t Au. Most of the workings are less than 30m deep and in general did not persist below the water table. It seems that the sulphide zone mineralisation was not refractory.

The stamper battery was seen suggesting free-milling gold, but its use may have been limited to the oxidised zone only. The worked veins appear to be limonitic stained and fractured vein quartz. In many cases solution cavities and box work textures indicate that the mineralised veins were quartz-carbonate-sulphide veins.

Fresh vein material from Wilson Reef consists of fractured vein quartz, calcite and minor pyrite, and commonly have thin chloritic selvages. Almost all hard rock workings strike just east of north and are hosted in bedding parallel structures. Workings are often continuous along strike for up to 500m but narrow.