Legacy Minerals is compiling a database of historical data over its Drake project
This work will be key in determining the forward exploration program
Appropriate use of airborne and ground geophysical surveys to provide comprehensive data set across the project area
Special Report: Legacy Minerals is setting the stage for further exploration at its Drake copper-gold project within NSW’s highly prospective New England Fold Belt.
Drake covers 350km2 of prospective epithermal terrain and porphyry potential, which hosts an existing resource of 320,000oz gold and 23Moz silver within the New England Belt.
That belt hosts major deposits such as the 2.5Moz Cracow gold mine and the 8.5Moz Mt Carlton gold mine.
Historical drilling has returned gold results such as 8m at 16.92g/t and 118m at 1.71g/t, copper hits of 16m at 5.18% and 10.1m at 7.26%, and silver intersections topping up to 26.5m at 220g/t.
Legacy Minerals (ASX:LGM) notes that Drake includes a ~150km2 collapsed caldera and associated mineralisation which has similar geological characteristics to other major Pacific Rim settings and deposits such as Porgera, the second largest goldfield in Papua New Guinea.
Drake is one of three large epithermal systems that the company holds, the other two being Bauloora and Black Range.
Surveys considered
The company is continuing to incorporate significant amounts of historical data and exploration information across the tenement for follow-up field work programs.
This included the validation of several high-grade intercepts such as 12.82m grading 48g/t gold and 2589g/t silver with 3.78m of core loss from 16.9m, which was extracted during mining activities at Drake that extended up to 1990.
LGM noted that these shallow and high-grade hits demonstrate the exploration potential at Drake across numerous undrilled prospects contained within the caldera.
“The more our exploration team unpacks the Drake project, the more we are excited about its untested potential. And that potential is framed in the context of the upside we see in our other large epithermal systems, Black Range, and Bauloora which is being explored under an earn-in agreement with Newmont,” managing director Christopher Byrne said.
“We have progressed our exploration at the Drake project with the signing of a key land access agreement with the Forestry Corporation of NSW and established a base of operations at Drake for future field and drilling campaigns.
“As part of our ongoing work, our team has continued to assess historical reports and bring all soils, rock chips, drilling, and other mapping information into a centralised database which will lay the foundations for future campaigns.
“It is exciting that we have been able to confirm some very high-grade drilling results such as 12.82m at 48g/t Au and 2589g/t Ag, including 0.91m at 230g/t Au and 9081g/t Ag.
“These results further confirm our view of the prospectivity of numerous untested drill targets across the 150km2 Drake caldera.”
Exploration plan
The company continues to compile a comprehensive database of all historical surface and drilling assays, as well as historical geological maps, mining activities and geophysical surveys.
Extensive work undertaken by companies over the years provides LGM with a fantastic base of knowledge and information from which to leverage and work from.
This work is expected to be finalised over the next couple months, the learnings from which will be key in determining the forward exploration program.
In parallel, the company is assessing the appropriate use of airborne and ground geophysical surveys to provide a comprehensive and systematic data set across the Drake Project area.
Separately, LGM is currently drilling at its 100% owned Black Range epithermal gold project in NSW and is in the final stages of drill planning at its Bauloora Project under the earn-In agreement with Newmont.
This article was developed in collaboration with Legacy Minerals, 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.
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