Special Report: Legend Mining (ASX:LEG) has significantly increased the footprint of one of the many targets it has discovered in the highly prospective and renowned Fraser Range region of Western Australia in its latest drilling program.

A 60-hole aircore drilling program uncovered more nickel and copper mineralisation within conductor D5 – one of 14 prospective conductors previously identified at the project.

“What these holes have done,  250m from previousdrilling — which is 20 house blocks away in the average street, is picked up more of this combination of anomalous copper and nickel,” managing director Mark Wilson told Stockhead.

“The numbers to the goldfields nickel people aren’t that big, but the fact that the ratio of nickel and copper in theseholes is basically one-to-one, that’s an extraordinarily good sign.”

The Rockford project is a partnership between Legend (70 per cent) and renowned and successful prospector Mark Creasy (30 per cent).

One key hit was 12m at 0.09 per cent nickel, 0.18 per cent copper and 0.02 per cent cobalt from 64m, including 4m at 0.1 percent nickel, 0.46 per cent copper and 0.04 per cent cobalt from 72m.

Another notable intercept was 8m at 0.15 per cent nickel, 0.18 per cent copper and 0.02 per cent cobalt from 44m.

To date, 55 holes have been completed over 13 of the 14 conductors.

Results have now been received from the first 27 holes, with samples from the next 28 holes currently in the laboratory.

Drilling has intersected favourable nickel and copper mafic/ultramafic intrusive host rocks at all 13 conductors tested so far.

Hot exploration spot

The Fraser Range became known as a base metals hot spot back in 2012 when Sirius Resources uncovered the Nova-Bollinger nickel, copper and cobalt mine, which eventually earned the company’s backers – including Creasy – the very large sum of $1.8 billion.

Independence Group (ASX:IGO) acquired Sirius and its Nova mine in 2015 and has several partnerships with other juniors in the region.

The voraciousness with which Independence is doing deals in the Fraser Range has shone a light on Legend as an attractive target.

In June last year, Legend notched a share price gain of 500 per cent, when it hit 6c — up from 1c in December 2017.

The share price soared because the company reported a series of the best aircore drilling results that have been reported in the Fraser Range since Sirius’ discovery at Nova.

At the same time Creasy announced a new nickel, copper and cobalt discovery called “Silver Knight”.

“There was an expectation that Legend would do diamond drilling and that was also good fuel for the market,” Wilson told Stockhead.

This latest round of drilling is setting up Legend to undertake further drilling on high-priority targets.

Nice problems to have

At the same time as the recent air-core drilling, Legend did an induced polarisation (IP) survey over Area D.

It is an exploration method that has been used in the highly prospective Fraser Range to assist in other discoveries.

But in Legend’s case the IP survey couldn’t see through the “very conductive” cover.

“We designed an air-core line over the top of what we saw as the projected location of each conductor to the top of fresh rock, and then put a hole into what is effectively the footwall, the top of the conductor and the hanging wall at each of those locations, and this program is reporting the first half of those holes,” Wilson explained.

“Importantly, this isn’t a program which could have led to discovery, it’s us doing the work that we need to do before we prioritise which of those conductors we might choose to diamond drill, because the characteristics of all of them are such that they could be what we’re looking for.

“What we’re trying to do is use science to give us a sound rationale as to the prioritisation and ranking, and therefore what order we do the diamond drill holes into those conductors.”

>> Read respected Stockhead columnist Tim Treadgold’s detailed analysison Legend Mining’s potential

This story was developed in collaboration with Legend Mining, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
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