Special Report: Lefroy officially adds a third string to its burg­eoning gold prospect portfolio after striking high-grade gold in an early stage, three-hole diamond drilling program at Hang Glider Hill.

There’s no doubt 2020 will be a big year for young Kalgoorlie-based explorer Lefroy Exploration (ASX:LEX).

For starters, there’s the sensational $25m JV with major miner and gold finder Gold Fields over the Western Lefroy tenement package.

Within the wholly owned Eastern Lefroy project there’s the evolving, high-grade discovery at Lucky Strike, which Lefroy could fast-track to production in 2020.

Now there’s Hang Glider Hill.

READ: LEX now has 3 separate drilling programs underway at the Lefroy Gold Project

Lefroy identified Hang Glider Hill, ~8km southwest of the high-grade Daisy Milano underground mine operated by Silver Lake Resources (ASX:SLR), in June 2018.

The prospect was discovered through ground reconnaissance (also known as walking around), researching historic reports, and the recent discovery of gold nuggets by a prospector right near the ridgeline that dominates the landscape.

The largest nugget found weighed 102.3 grams (worth a tidy $7800 at today’s prices):

Subsequent prospecting at Hang Glider Hill using metal detectors yielded numerous gold nuggets, which defined a north-westerly trend extending 2.3km from the original find at Hang Glider Hill.

Lefroy suspected that the irregular and angular shape of most of the nuggets meant they had not travelled far from their original source.

Finding the source

Lefroy’s recent maiden drilling program comprised three angled holes to evaluate the geology beneath Hang Glider Hill for future targeted drilling campaigns.

The company wasn’t counting on hitting visible gold straight away, but that’s what happened:

Highlights include 6.8m at 1.86 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, just 53.7m from surface. This includes a high grade 1.05m intersection at 7.42g/t.

The gold is hosted in rocks interpreted to be near to the Mount Monger Fault — a major influence on gold mineralisation at the emerging high-grade Lucky Strike discovery, 17km to the southeast.

Planning of the next stage of drilling activity is already underway, Lefroy says.

This will include shallow auger drilling to both infill the existing grid, but also to extend to the northwest into tenure only granted this year. The auger drilling is expected to commence in the March quarter of 2020.

Lefroy has also kicked off a detailed geological mapping program focused on this 2.3km-long trend, using historic exploration data collected by nickel-focused WMC and BHP in the 1970s and 80s.

A key target area for future drilling is at the north-western nugget patch where weathered rock outcrops display similar characteristics to that observed at Hang Glider Hill, the company says.

Results from geological mapping, the auger drilling and knowledge from the recent diamond drilling will guide focused drilling programs along this underexplored trend in 2020.

 

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.