The journey from drilling its first discovery hole to releasing a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) at the ambitious Burns Gold-Copper Project has been relatively swift for Lefroy Exploration (ASX: LEX). This month the little explorer, backed by a hardworking team of geologists, announced a resource at Burns Central containing close to a million ounces of gold and silver combined and almost 60,000 tonnes of copper located 70km south-east of the Goldfields capital Kalgoorlie.
Managing Director Wade Johnson says while the MRE rewarded two years of exploration work, the real upside comes from exploration potential of six nearby Exploration Targets located along the Burns Corridor.
Over the last few months Johnson and co. have gained a stronger understanding of mineralisation, specifically through new 3D modelling and longitudinal section imaging, and have determined through research in partnership with the Centre of Exploration Targeting (joint ventured by WA State Government and UWA) it is hosted in an alkalic gold-copper porphyry.
Porphyry systems are traditionally large in scale and economically attractive due to their high gold content and geometry, making them viable low-grade but high-tonnage operations. This is a motivating factor for Johnson, with the porphyry style mineralisation present at Burns dated to be around 2.6 billion years old and a first-of-its-kind for the area.
“The newly discovered Archaean porphyry gold-copper style of mineralisation at Burns Central is ground breaking for the Eastern Goldfields,” Johnson says.
“What we’ve found at Burns Central has laid the foundation for the potential discovery of similar deposits near Burns and possibly throughout the entire Kalgoorlie Terrane.
“We believe the gold-copper mineralisation discovered at Burns Central represents only the initial indication of a system of greater magnitude with huge potential for both lateral and depth extensions.
LEX has already turned its focus to the next phase of exploration which includes planning for additional multi-hole diamond and RC drilling at Burns Central to expand the resource north, south and west, as well as drilling targeting The Simpsons family of prospects: Lovejoy, Smithers, Flanders, Skinner, Millhouse and Ralph.
This all helped by the announcement last month that Lefroy is the beneficiary of a $180,000 WA State Government Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) grant to assist some of the diamond drilling activity.
Johnson summed up the MRE announcement earlier this month and laid out the Company’s next move plans.
