Kempfield

The Kempfield polymetallic (silver, lead and zinc) mining project islocated 57 kilometres south south east of Orange on the banks of Rocky Bridge Creek, in the Evans Shire in New South Wales. The project site is accessed by a nine kilometre unsealed, all weather road, from the town of Trunkey Creek, about 180 kilometres west of Sydney.

The Kempfield Project Being Developed at the Site of the old Kempfield Open cut Mine

The Kempfield project is being developed at the site of the former Kempfield silver, lead, copper and barite open cut mine that was also known as the Quarries Zone Mine 1. The Kempfield project has a resource of 52 million ounces of silver.

The Kempfield Project to be Developed by Argent Minerals Limited

The Kempfield silver, lead and zinc mining project is being developed by Western Australian based mining company, Argent Minerals Limited. Argent Minerals acquired the project from Golden Cross Resources,(GCR). GCR had previously acquired the project from Metallic Resources in 1998. The land surrounding the Kempfield project was mostly pegged during the gold rush of 1860.

Kempfield Project to be Developed in Stages

The Kempfield open cut mine will be developed in stages. The first stage is expected to mine just under 10 million ounces of silver over a period of five years. The mine has been designed to not have a tailings dam, as is usually the case in most mines of this nature. Instead, it will create a hill of crushed ore that will be carefully laid out in a similar way to that at the Peak Hill mine near Dubbo, in New South Wales. A liner will be placed under the hill of crushed ore to ensure no leakage takes place. On completion the hill will be thoroughly rinsed with water before it is covered with an appropriate mix of local vegetation. In this way it will blend in naturally with the rest of the environment. The first stage of the Kempfield mine development will employ about 150 mining personnel.

Kempfield has the Potential to Become a Significant Silver Mine

The Kempfield polymetallic mine will have the potential to become a significant silver mine also producing high grade lead, gold and zinc. The mine was originally operated as a copper mine and although it became known that silver was also mineable from the orebody, silver was never exploited as the focus at the time was purely on mining copper. The entire project area extends three kilometres from south to north and two kilometres from east to west.

The Kempfield project is located 41 kilometres from the Cadia mine, it is the flagship project for Argent Minerals and is registered as a New South Wales State Significant Development Project. The project in 2014 had a JORC mineral resource of 21.8 million tonnes containing 52 million ounces of silver. Argent Minerals is currently focusing on exploration activities to prove up rich, precious and base metal grades. It has been successful in identifying rich grades of zinc and lead of up to 17.9 percent to the west of the existing resource. The low cost gold and silver heap leach operation is still the company's market ready, fast response option that can be fast tracked into early production should mineral prices for precious metals recover sufficiently. When this event occurs Argent Minerals will be well positioned to begin the development of Stage One of the Kempfield Project.