Leeuwin Metals identifies extensive gold outside mined areas at Marda

• Leeuwin Metals’ historical drilling review identifies extensive remnant gold mineralisation at Marda Central
• Results sit outside four previously mined open pits and provide clear drill targets
• Company undertaking similar reviews at the Evanston, Golden Orb and King Brown prospects

Special Report: Leeuwin Metals’ review of historical drilling at its Marda gold project in the WA Goldfields has identified extensive mineralisation along a 3km trend outside mined areas.

Significant gold assays such as 62m grading 1.94g/t from 102m (MRC292), 46m at 2.2g/t from 98m (PYRC040) and 11m at 6.9g/t from 21m (MRC364) were noted from drilling outside the four pits previously mined by Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS).

Leeuwin Metals (ASX:LM1) said the review results provided clear drill targets and highlighted the strong exploration upside for the project, the acquisition of which was completed in late March 2025.

The results also support the drill program that is underway.

“The drilling results uncovered by the review of Marda Central strengthen our view about the substantial upside at Marda,” executive chairman Christopher Piggott said.

“The results show there is extensive mineralisation outside the mined areas, including high-grade zones, and highlight the potential to create value by extending this mineralisation. Current drilling is targeting extensions of this mineralisation.

“They also show there has been little or no deeper drilling, which represents a significant opportunity for Leeuwin, particularly given that the mineralisation is hosted in banded iron formations, which are known for extending at depth.”

Marda project

The Marda project covers more than 500km2 of granted mining, exploration and prospecting leases about 120km north of Southern Cross.

It has proven gold prospectivity with eight open pits and numerous historical workings as well as high-grade drill intercepts such as 3.6m at 16.4g/t gold at the Evanston prospect and 5m at 7.47g/t gold at Mt King.

Marda is broken up into the Marda Central, Marda North, Marda South and Marda West target areas.

At Marda Central, which hosts four existing pits mined by RMS between 2019 and 2023, the core trend spans more than 3km with mineralisation characterised by banded iron formations and quartz veining associated with sulphides.

Extensions to the existing pits and advanced prospects within the trend, are high-priority drilling targets for 2025.

At Dolly Pot prospect, mineralisation is more than 150m in strike length, with the body extending to at least 150m vertical. Exploration potential remains at depth and along strike.

Python is mineralised over 300m of strike across two plunging bodies and multiple shoots remain open while mineralisation at Dugite is defined over 140m.

The Gold Stream prospect hosts mineralisation over a 150m strike across three parallel bodies with multiple shoots remaining open.

Other prospects include Taipan and Cobra.

LM1 acquired the project for upfront consideration of $500,000 in shares and will make milestone cash payments of $500,000 and $1m upon the definition of JORC-compliant resources of 500,000oz and 1Moz respectively.

Watch: Leeuwin spins the maiden rig for high-grade extensions

Next steps

“Given the success of this review, we will now conduct similar assessments of other key areas at Marda, including Evanston, Golden Ord and King Brown with the expectation there will be additional brownfield targets identified,” Piggott said.

“This will be done in parallel with ongoing assessments of early-stage prospects within the project area and other opportunities within the region.”

Drilling in 2025 will likely test the prospects within Marda Central with LM1 flagging that exploration at Dolly Pot will focus on testing the controls of the mineralisation shoots while testing extensions to the pits as well as footwall and hanging wall target areas will be key priorities at Python and Gold Stream.

The company adds there is significant potential for further drilling both along strike and at depth at Dugite.

This article was developed in collaboration with Leeuwin Metals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.