E79 Gold Mines begins much-anticipated maiden drilling program at Laverton South
E79 Gold Mines plans to begin drilling at its Laverton South gold project this week.
After joining ASX ranks in October, E79 Gold Mines (ASX: E79) has started the much-anticipated maiden aircore drilling program at its Laverton South gold project in Western Australia.
The maiden drilling program will total 25,000m and is initially focused on a high-priority target identified within the Pinjin JV tenement.
This program is expected to be completed in February next year with assays anticipated by April.
E79 chief executive officer Ned Summerhayes said kicking-off the maiden drilling program at Laverton South was an “exciting time” and “important milestone” for the company.
Mr Summerhayes said this campaign is testing walk up drill targets at Pinjin JV that the previous owner St Barbara (ASX: SBM) had defined.
“We expect this program to continue through into the new year before undertaking programs on the Lake Yindana tenement,” he said.
The start of drilling at Laverton South follows recent geophysical surveys, which firmed up a new anomaly that correlates with a historic drill hole from 1987, which unearthed 12m at 0.86 grams per tonne gold from 4m, and 8m at 0.23g/t gold from 24m.
This target has been defined as high priority.
Laverton South gold project
The Pinjin JV tenements cover 139 square kilometres of ground and E79 is farming into them under an agreement with St Barbara.
In addition to Pinjin JV, Laverton South also includes Lake Yindana, which encompasses 207sq km and is situated on the southern portion of the 30 million ounce Laverton tectonic zone, about 130km east-northeast of Kalgoorlie.
The Laverton tectonic zone hosts many multi-million-ounce gold deposits including Goldfields’ Granny Smith (3.7Moz) and Wallaby (11.8Moz), as well as AngloGold Ashanti’s (ASX: AGG) Sunrise Dam (10.3Moz).
Jungar Flats
E79’s other flagship project is Jungar Flats, which is located in WA’s north Murchison region comprises 336sq km of tenements and 30km of prospective strike.
It is 45km from the 2.8Moz Big Bell gold deposit.
Mr Summerhayes said a gravity survey is underway at Jungar Flats and it expected to be completed this year.