Lefroy Exploration Limited (ASX: LEX) has received further high-grade results from a seven-hole Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling programme completed along the Havelock linear magnetic trend in June 2022.
Havelock is part of the Eastern Lefroy Project within the company’s wholly owned flagship Lefroy Gold Project (LGP) in Western Australia. It is located approximately seven km northwest of the company’s Burns Gold-Copper (AuCu) discovery and 1200m southwest of the company’s Lucky Strike gold resource.
The Burns discovery is located immediately east of and proximal to the large Burns Intrusion which has a distinctive annular magnetic feature. Magnetite alteration and veining is a common characteristic associated with the Au-Cu mineralisation at Burns.
At Lucky Strike, gold mineralisation is hosted within multiple narrow magnetic Banded Iron Formation (BIF) units interbedded with shale.
Magnetite is a common feature at Burns, the Burns Intrusion and the Lucky Strike deposit, and the company’s ongoing research efforts will ultimately determine the nature of any genetic relationship which exists.
We are excited by the geological implications of this new gold discovery so close to the Burns Intrusion. We believe that the three linear magnetic trends are magnetite altered sedimentary rocks outboard of a large, zoned alteration system related to the Burns Intrusion,” Managing Director, Wade Johnson, said.
“This now expands our exploration search space along the three prospective horizons with 7500m of strike yet to be tested in the Havelock trend alone.”
The Havelock target was generated by the company in 2018 during an assessment of the regional aeromagnetic imagery, which highlighted a 9.5km linear magnetic unit parallel to and south of the Lucky Strike trend.
A single traverse of AC drill holes, completed in July 2020 intersected strong quartz veining in an oxidised BIF unit interpreted to be similar to the host rocks at Lucky Strike. The best result was 5m @ 1.2g/t Au from 50m in hole LEFA774.
A follow up AC drilling programme in December 2020 testing multiple targets along the Havelock magnetic trend outlined a new bedrock gold anomaly (>0.25g/t Au) with a strike length of approximately 1000m.
Significant results from that programme include 1m @ 5.37 g/t Au from 20m in LEFA897 and 3m @ 1.04 g/t Au from 57m to EoH in LEFA898 both hosted by an interpreted BIF unit.
Next Steps
Compilation of the gold and bottom of hole (BoH) multi-element data is being progressed for both this program and the expansive Lake Randall aircore programme, which previously tested multiple targets including Burns.
The compiled results in conjunction with the ongoing research and development program with the University of Western Australia’s (UWA) Centre for Exploration Targeting (CET) at UWA will provide additional vectors to refine target ranking and selection.
At Havelock the next steps in the exploration will include:
- Aircore drilling to expand the gold anomaly and evaluate further targets along strike at Havelock plus initial drilling along the Erinmore trend.
- Step out RC drilling at Havelock to expand the mineralisation.
- Early-stage diamond drilling to obtain geological and structural information as well as providing samples for research by the CET to confirm a link between the alteration assemblage at Havelock and Burns.
The aircore drilling is scheduled to commence in the September quarter, subject to drill rig availability.
