DiscovEx hints at major new discovery for Edjudina gold project following high-grade end-of-hole intersections

Australian explorer DiscovEx Resources (ASX: DCX) has confirmed the potential for a major new discovery in WA’s prolific Laverton district following positive results from a sampling program at its flagship Edjudina gold project.

A recently-completed single metre re-split sampling program conducted as a follow-up to a drilling at Edjudina’s Hornet prospect has unveiled the presence of high-grade gold mineralisation in several end-of-hole intersections within weathered, primary bedrock.

Best end-of-hole results were 2 metres at 3.0 grams per tonne gold from 50-52m including 1m at 5.3g/t; 7m at 1.4g/t gold from 40-47m including 3m at 2.8g/t; and 1m at 3.4g/t gold from 54-55m.

Panning of the intervals also produced fine-grained visible gold, providing further confidence that the mineralisation is in-situ and may be suited to conventional processing pending the results of lab tests utilising a cyanide leach assay method.

Regarding the tenements, Gateway Mining (ASX: GML) is a 80/20 joint venture partner with DiscovEx, following Gateway selling an 80% interest in a number land holdings.

Through the JV, Gateway has a 20% free carried interest over the tenements up until a decision is made whether or not to mine.

In addition, Gateway has a 1.5% gross royalty over the tenements and owns over 26 million shares in DiscovEx.

Edjudina potential

Managing director Bradley Drabsch said the company was excited by the potential defined for Edjudina.

“[This is] such an exciting time to be involved in a greenfields project in a largely overlooked area of the Laverton district,” he said.

“The fact that free gold was present in our samples provides us with further confidence that these intervals are primary in nature and the mineralisation is potentially amenable to conventional gold processing.”

Mr Drabsch said an additional aircore drilling program had been planned to test for extensions to the north and south of the Hornet mineralisation.

Drilling is expected to commence once ground preparations are complete and a rig becomes available.

DiscovEx has also submitted and application for a diamond drillhole as part of a government co-funded exploration drilling scheme.

Should the application be approved, the funding will assist the company efforts to test deeper into the Hornet prospect for geological information to assist future exploration activities.

Prospective district

The Edjudina project is situated within the southern portion of the prospective Laverton district, about 700 kilometres north-east of Perth.

It covers a strike extent of over 50km within the Linden Terrain and is immediately along strike from Matsa Resources’ (ASX: MAT) 385,000oz Fortitude gold project, which is being actively explored and expanded.

Previous work at Edjudina occurred from the 1980s – when the gold price was less than US$300/oz – and included soil sampling, geophysics, air core and minimal reverse circulation drilling.

The Laverton district hosts multiple major gold discoveries including the 12 million ounce Sunrise Dam deposit owned by Anglogold Ashanti (ASX: AGG), Saracen Mineral’s (ASX: SAR) 2Moz Carosue Dam deposit and Matsa’s 0.5Moz Red October project.

At mid-morning, shares in DiscovEx Resources were trading 75% higher at $0.007.