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Lefroy hits 100,000 ounces after Kambalda resource upgrade

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Matt BirneySponsored
Tough terrain calls for tough wheels. Lefroy Exploration’s ground near Kambalda is partially covered by a salt lake, but that has not stopped Managing Director Wade Johnson (pictured) from accessing it.
Camera IconTough terrain calls for tough wheels. Lefroy Exploration’s ground near Kambalda is partially covered by a salt lake, but that has not stopped Managing Director Wade Johnson (pictured) from accessing it. Credit: File

After a methodical and sustained exploration program at the Lefroy Gold project near Kambalda, Lefroy Exploration has now reached the 100,000 ounce resource milestone at the project. The milestone was surpassed courtesy of a 28% uplift in the Red Dale prospect resource to just over 25,000 ounces of gold.

Lefroy says that its Red Dale resource is part of a larger north south trending gold bearing paleo-drainage network within its tenure.

Paleochannel deposits usually contain variable amounts of coarse gold, which is easy for a gravity concentrator to extract, potentially removing the need for the ore to run the full circuit of a processing plant.

Importantly, Lefroy is now interpreting the mineralisation at Red Dale to have a primary or bedrock source somewhere close – or perhaps even multiple sources.

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The company says that whilst it is still looking to drill up more paleochannel resources at Red Dale, it is now planning the hunt for the bedrock source which should provide a touch of excitement for the Perth-based company.

Lefroy has split its Lefroy Gold project into two project areas – the East and the West packages, both of which are about 50km south east of the mining centre of Kalgoorlie. The eastern package is 100% owned by Lefroy and contains the Red Dale deposit amongst a multitude of others that have a grab bag of geological features that are begging to be tested.

Curiously, Lefroy has managed to put a rope around the $6.7b gold mining goliath, Gold Fields, who has agreed to earn up to 70 per cent of Lefroy’s Western package by spending a whopping $25m on it over 6 years.

Earn in’s on this scale are rare and the deal is exquisite for the small capped Lefroy who will get a free ride whilst Gold Field’s methodically do what big companies do – search for large ore deposits.

And at the end of it all, Lefroy will still be holding 30 per cent of whatever Gold Fields manages to find.

Notably, Gold Fields just happens to own the nearby 10m ounce plus St Ives gold mining project and infrastructure, opening up the possibility at least of Lefroy’s share of any discovery being treated at St Ives.

The Western Lefroy project covers 372 square kilometres of Lefroy’s total 621 square kilometre flagship project and Gold Fields has been peppering the ground with air core drill holes and generating some compelling gold anomalies across the key Zanex, LLT06 and LLT04 prospects.

Unlike many smaller capped companies who would have switched to an RC program long ago, Gold Fields has been taking its time with the air core rigs, creating an exceptional data base of glorified geochemical samples that will assist it to properly and fully target a really significant RC program in time.

Lefroy is headed up by Geologist, Wade Johnson and the company has been defining and finding its own gold prospects along the prospective 20km long Mt Monger Fault to the east of the Gold Fields JV ground.

Lake Lefroy East is 100 per cent owned by Lefroy Exploration and is surprisingly under-explored, considering its goldfields pedigree. It holds a mineral resource comprising nearly 105,000 ounces grading 1.71 grams per tonne gold across the Red Dale and Lucky Strike deposits.

Mr Johnson said: “The resource increase at Red Dale, ticks the total resource inventory at the Lefroy Gold Project over the 100,000 ounce mark, which is a milestone achievement for the Company.”

“We are now seeing the rewards from our early stage greenfields exploration that commenced in 2017 and laid the foundations for the resources and multiple drill ready targets we are now delivering.”

The Lucky Strike deposit is only 35km from Gold Fields’ St Ives mill and just 5km from Silverlake Resources Randalls gold mill, providing for some potentially quick and easy cash flow if Lefroy can get the initial economics of its assets to work.

Lucky Strike spans 740m along strike and Lefroy said it consists of parallel zones of mineralisation that form gently south east plunging high grade gold shoots, hosted by banded iron formations.

The deposit’s headline results include an 8-metre-wide zone going 18.6 grams per tonne from one shoot. This 8m zone includes 5m running at nearly an ounce of gold per tonne.

Another hole from Lucky Strike returned 4m grading 14.3g/t from 70m.

Lucky Strike overall appears to be wide open and may reach a potential strike length of 3km according to the company. At the deposit’s southernmost extremity, a 22m hit went 2.48g/t and at the northern extremity a 1.7m drill intercept came in at 2 ounces to the tonne gold.

Lefroy’s Red Dale deposit sits just 4km north of the resource at Lucky Strike and features notable results like 7m grading 1.44g/t from just 42m and 7m grading 1.56g/t gold from 40m.

Amidst a swathe of prospects and gold anomalies across the Lefroy gold project, the ground surrounding the Hang Gilder Hill prospect has been recently covered by an augur sampling program, which covered a substantial 1000 hectares.

Augur is an early exploration stage tool and can dig out shallow soil samples. Lefroy has now defined a new gold anomaly that hangs together over a strike of about 3km north of the main Hang Glider Hill prospect.

The augur sampling program also picked up a linear north-west trending gold anomaly, which is defined by consecutive, adjoining results of greater than 20 parts per billion gold according to Lefroy.

This new zone is parallel to the main Hang Glider zone and Lefroy has coined it the Hang Glider North prospect.

The company is now preparing to drill some air core holes over the Hang Glider project to cover these prospective zones.

With an ever growing resource on its 100% owned ground and the 800 pound Gold Field’s gorilla plugging away on its joint ventured ground next door, Lefroy has both a traditional exploration and resource development story and one emerging of significant blue sky.

If there is anything big hiding at Lefroy West, it is safe to assume that Gold Fields, with its exceptional mineral targeting ability and crazy deep pockets, will find it.

Every junior exploration story needs a bit of blue sky and Lefroy has it in spades.

Is your ASX listed company doing something interesting ? Contact : matt.birney@wanews.com.au

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