Special Report: Gold Fields is testing six big gold anomalies — in similar rocks to the neighbouring 10-million-ounce St Ives gold camp — with deeper, more targeted drilling at the Western Lefroy Joint Venture (WLJV) with explorer Lefroy Exploration (ASX:LEX).

Exploring for gold on/underneath salt lakes is tough, which is probably why so many remain underexplored — regardless of how prospective they are.

The high-grade Invincible gold deposit, which forms the backbone of Gold Fields’ St Ives camp near Kalgoorlie, almost went undiscovered due to the low tenor gold results and small geochemical footprint.

The major gold miner is now laser-focused on finding another Invincible on the 372sqkm WLJV, ~15km away, with explorer LEX.

Gold Fields can earn a 70 per cent stake in the WLJV from LEX by spending up to $25m on exploration over six years, commencing mid-2018.

Two years of methodical early stage exploration by Gold Fields has now generated six big gold anomalies underneath Lake Lefroy for deeper drilling.

Importantly, the JV has confirmed that the rocks beneath Lake Lefroy are similar to the rocks hosting the multiple gold deposits at the +10-million-ounce St Ives, 15km to the west.

This important geological breakthrough, combined with the multiple gold anomalies, “greatly enhances the prospectivity of the area beneath the sediments of Lake Lefroy for primary bedrock gold mineralisation”, says LEX.

The maiden 9,000m multi-target reverse circulation drilling program is testing these robust gold anomalies — LLT08, LLT06, LLT04, Eastern Shoreline Trend and Zanex North.

Plan of drill holes and priority RC drill targets within the Western Lefroy JV in Lake Lefroy.

Each target area will be drilled by one or more traverses of deep holes to gain a greater appreciation of the primary (fresh) bedrock.

The program is expected to take two months to complete with validated assay results received from Gold Fields in September.

“This is an exciting phase of exploration to provide a deeper evaluation of the multiple, large regolith gold anomalies in Lake Lefroy,” LEX managing director Wade Johnson says.

“The priority gold targets generated are the culmination of a systematic and methodical exploration approach by Gold Fields over two years that has both generated multiple broad regolith hosted gold anomalies and confirmed the rock package as being similar to that at St Ives.”

 

This story was developed in collaboration with Lefroy Exploration, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This story does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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