Cosmo Metals (ASX:CMO) defines 12km high-priority gold trend at Bingara following LiDAR survey

Cosmo Metals (ASX: CMO) has delivered a significant step forward in its exploration efforts at the Bingara Goldfield in northern New South Wales, with a LiDAR survey outlining a 12 kilometre zone of intense historic mining activity.

This corridor, named the Star of Bingara to Lone Hand Trend, contains more than 1,180 pits and shafts and about 180 kilometres of alluvial workings, yet large portions remain underexplored by modern techniques.

Against this backdrop, Cosmo Metals Managing Director Ian Prentice answered detailed questions from investors about the findings, the supporting data, and the company’s next steps.

What does the LiDAR survey tell us about the Bingara Goldfield and why is it important?

The LiDAR survey has provided a much clearer picture of the Bingara Goldfield, enabling us to “see through” foliage cover to the underlying land surface and with the one metre resolution digital elevation model enabling us to interpret the terrain in fine detail.

What we identified within the 30km long Bingara Goldfield was a 12 kilometre corridor of high intensity historic mining activity that includes more than 1,180 pits and shafts as well as 180 kilometres of drainage channels that were worked for alluvial gold.

This area, which we have defined as the Star of Bingara to Lone Hand Trend, is centred on the Spring Creek prospect, yet there has been little to no drilling over four to five kilometres of strike both to the north and to the south of Spring Creek.

“The importance of this work is that it demonstrates previous drilling has only covered a very small portion of what is emerging as a potentially very large mineralised system, which now provides us with a strong foundation for our ongoing exploration.”

Can you elaborate on the historical and recent sampling results?

Our reconnaissance rock chip sampling north of Spring Creek returned assays up to 19 grams per tonne gold, which confirms the high grade nature of the mineralisation in the area and importantly confirms historical results in the same area that reached up to 16.4 grams per tonne.

Out of 286 historical rock chip samples collected, 15 returned results above 1 gram per tonne, demonstrating consistent evidence of high-grade gold across the trend.

In addition, historical soil sampling conducted in 1984 and 1995 covered 1.4 kilometres at Spring Creek and showed a strong coincident gold and arsenic anomaly, with peak results of 2.8 grams per tonne gold and 1,050 parts per million arsenic.

“This is particularly relevant because gold-arsenic associations are characteristic of orogenic gold systems and the small amount of drilling previously completed at Spring Creek intersected wide high grade gold mineralisation coincident with a portion of this anomaly.”

What do the historic drill results at Spring Creek show?

Although the drilling undertaken historically at Spring Creek was modest in scale and relatively shallow, the results were encouraging.

A total of 45 drill holes were completed for just over 1,700 metres, with an average hole depth of less than 40 metres, yet the drilling intersected broad and shallow gold mineralisation.

Some of the better results included six metres at 6.43 grams per tonne gold, which also contained two metres at 17.59 grams per tonne from eight metres depth, eight metres at 2.83 grams per tonne including five metres at 3.60 grams per tonne from four metres, and 14 metres at 1.53 grams per tonne including five metres at 2.45 grams per tonne from 19 metres.

The mineralisation is shallow, gently dipping to the east and defined over 350 metres of strike, but it remains open along strike and down dip. Importantly the prospect hasn’t been tested at depth for repetitions or feeder zones.

“With very little drilling conducted beyond this narrow central zone, most of the 12 kilometre corridor has not yet been tested, which clearly illustrates the exploration opportunity that lies ahead.”

What are the next exploration steps for Cosmo at Bingara?

Our immediate focus is to complete the permitting process for our maiden drill program at Spring Creek.

This program is designed to follow up the previous shallow intersections, test the southern extensions of the shallow east dipping mineralisation that coincide with the gold and arsenic soil anomaly, and also investigate whether steeper feeder structures could be contributing to the system.

“Our immediate focus is to advance the permitting process for our maiden drill program at Spring Creek.”

At the same time, we plan to conduct systematic geological mapping and rock chip sampling along the underexplored strike extensions of the Star of Bingara to Lone Hand Trend, covering the four to five kilometre sections north and south of Spring Creek where modern exploration has been almost non-existent.

We are also progressing work on the Mt Everest to Mona Mine VMS trend, where LiDAR has highlighted a large number of historic copper workings that have never been systematically sampled, so our forward program is designed to address multiple high-priority opportunities in parallel.

How does this project fit into Cosmo’s broader exploration portfolio?

The Bingara Project is a central focus for us because of its scale and the fact that it is so underexplored, but it also fits into a larger portfolio of quality assets.

Bingara itself covers 484 square kilometres, and together with the nearby Nundle Project we control 743 square kilometres in the New England Orogen of northern New South Wales.

This region has a proven history of gold, antimony and copper discoveries, yet modern exploration since the 1980s has been very limited, and there has been virtually no drilling for around 30 years.

In Western Australia, we have the Kanowna Gold Project which is located just 13 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie and adjacent to the seven million ounce Kanowna Belle mine, and we also own the Yamarna Project in the Eastern Goldfields which hosts the Mt Venn copper, nickel and cobalt deposit.

This combination gives us exposure to both precious and base metals across two highly prospective regions, with Bingara now standing out as a particularly exciting growth opportunity given the extent of the mineralised trend we have defined.

Building Momentum Across a Large Portfolio

The combination of the LiDAR interpretation, reconnaissance sampling and historical results has shown that the Bingara Goldfield contains a large, underexplored mineralised system with strong potential for further discoveries.

With permitting for drilling at Spring Creek progressing and systematic work about to begin along the wider trend, Cosmo is in a strong position to unlock value in New South Wales while also advancing its Western Australian projects.

As Ian Prentice, Managing Director of Cosmo Metals, emphasises, the Bingara Project represents a compelling opportunity to revisit a historic mining district with modern exploration methods, and it is fast becoming a cornerstone of the company’s exploration strategy.

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