One of Australia’s top mining journalists, Kristie Batten writes for Stockhead every week in her regular column placing a watchful eye on the movers and shakers of the small cap resources scene.

Junior explorer Legacy Minerals Holdings (ASX:LGM) believes its large landholding and tier one partners positions it as having the best chance of making a major discovery.

Legacy holds more than 8000 square kilometres of ground in New South Wales, making it the largest ASX-listed explorer in the state by tenure.

Legacy managing director Chris Byrne said despite the fact that NSW hosted Australia’s largest gold mine, Cadia, it remained underexplored.

That may be changing. Since 2023, NSW has been the focus of around A$16 billion in mining deals and $300 million worth of exploration joint ventures.

Most of the major miners are exploring in NSW, including Newmont Corporation, AngloGold Ashanti and Fortescue.

While NSW has recently gotten a bad wrap due to the veto of Regis Resources’ McPhillamys mine, Byrne pointed out that the state government had approved the project and the reason it couldn’t go ahead was due to a federal decision.

 

Chasing monsters

Byrne said Legacy had “boots on the ground” across four of its nine projects and would be working through the Christmas holiday period.

Legacy’s most advanced project is Drake, an epithermal deposit which it says is one of the largest mineral systems in NSW.

The project has a history of mining dating back to the 1850s.

Last week, Legacy reported that a light detection and ranging survey identified 391 mine shafts, 250 adits, 2726 trenches and prospecting pits, and 3367 total historical mining features.

An estimated $30-50 million has previously been spent at Drake on exploration and infrastructure, which includes a tailings dam, freshwater dam, grid easement, site sheds and housing.

“What we really like about Drake is this de-risked future upside that we see through exploring in a brownfields environment,” Byrne said.

“We’ve got long-life exploration licenses, importantly there’s no royalties across the project area either. It represents a pretty phenomenal sunk asset cost.”

Drake has a historical JORC 2004 resource, which Legacy is working on updating to JORC 2012.

Despite its long mining history and infrastructure, there’s only been limited shallow drilling at Drake.

“We’re looking for Porgera-style deposit,” Byrne said.

Porgera in Papua New Guinea is one of the world’s largest gold-copper deposits with an endowment of around 19.7 million ounces.

Meanwhile, Legacy’s Thomson project is considered a belt-scale opportunity, covering 5500 square kilometres.

“We really like the Thomson Orogen as a region as Geoscience Australia consider it to be the most unexplored orogen in Australia,” Byrne said.

“That big deposit is yet to be found in the Thomson.”

Drilling is planned for early 2025, with Greatland Gold’s Havieron gold-copper deposit in Western Australian seen as a potential analogy.

“We’re quite enthused by what we see in the geophysics,” Byrne said.

 

Big backing

Earlier this month, Legacy welcomed Fleet Space Technologies, Australia’s fastest growing company last year, as a shareholder and tech partner.

The company also has a number of high-calibre project partners.

Legacy’s Bauloora project is subject to a $15 million joint venture with the world’s largest gold miner, Newmont Corporation.

Newmont is targeting the discovery of a tier one epithermal gold deposit.

“Bauloora one of the largest epithermal vein systems in Australia,” Byrne said.

“The size of the prize here is big.”

Drilling is underway at Bauloora now, with results expected early next year.

Legacy also has exploration partnerships with S2 Resources, EarthAI and Helix Resources, worth $25 million in expenditure.

“What that $25 million gives us is a sustained exploration effort across the portfolio,” Byrne said.

S2, backed by Mark Creasy and run by two-time AMEC Prospector of the Year Award winner Mark Bennett, can earn 80% of the Glenlogan project, a potential porphyry deposit, by spending $6 million over six years.

Mineral technology company EarthAI is spending $4 million to earn 80% of the Fontenoy project, where drilling is underway.

In the company’s newest partnership, Helix Resources is farming into Legacy’s Central Cobar project.

“There’s a lot of upside in joint ventures and they’re a really good example of non-dilutive value creation,” Byrne said.

“Being a minor partner in a project that makes a major discovery means some significant returns for shareholders.”

 

At Stockhead, we tell is like it is. While Legacy Minerals is a Stockhead advertiser it did not sponsor this article.

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