Lunnon Metals (ASX: LM8) has identified narrow high-grade and broad low-grade results confirm presence of gold in scout drilling exploring near surface gold potential to the immediate east of its Foster nickel mine, part of the Kambalda Gold and Nickel Project (KGNP) in Western Australia.
The reverse circulation (RC) drill programme was designed to tie down the location of the Lunnon Sediment, hosted within the Lunnon Basalt.
This sediment is a key regional interflow marker bed and host to significant gold discoveries in the area, most notably “the Father’s Day Vein”1 at the Beta/Hunt gold and nickel mine, just 15km to the north.
Drilling was completed in a series of step out RC holes along the strike of the stratigraphy in an area where the Lady Herial structures were interpreted to intersect the Lunnon Sediment. This target area is 500m to the north-east of the company’s recent successful drill program.
It is exciting to report that the target sediment was intersected in several holes and assay results recorded both narrow high-grade and broad anomalous low-grade gold intercepts.
The company considers these outcomes to be significant steps in confirming the potential for the Lunnon Basalt and the Lunnon Sediment to host gold. Historically, both these rock units were either under-explored or not tested at all, sitting as they do stratigraphically beyond the primary focus of historical drilling, namely the world-famous Kambalda nickel contact.
"The success that Karora Resources, now part of Westgold Resources Ltd, is having in the Lunnon Basalt at Beta/Hunt is testament to the amazing endowment of the St Ives camp,” Managing Director, Edmund Ainscough, said.
“Gold is hosted in almost every stratigraphic unit but the Lunnon Basalt was always considered the ‘poor cousin’ so to speak. It sits below the famous nickel contact and therefore has never seen any serious gold exploration effort at Foster.
“These are small, but important first steps in Lunnon Metals’ plan to test this new exploration search space on its own ground. The drilling of Defiance West next year will also deliver the first ever deep bedrock test in this area. We couldn’t be more excited for our 2025 programme to commence.”
