Legacy Minerals and Newmont joint venture hits the ground running at Bauloora

A new Legacy Minerals (ASX: LGM) and Newmont (NYSE: NEM) joint venture is leaving no stone unturned with the launch of a multi-faceted exploration campaign at the Bauloora gold project in New South Wales.

The “aggressive” program will feature the latest in state-of-the-art technology looking to uncover a major gold system in the historic and proven Lachlan Fold Belt region of NSW.

Newmont and Legacy signed a $15 million Bauloora farm-in agreement in April. Under Phase 1 of the farm-in, Newmont may acquire a 51% interest in the Bauloora tenements by spending a total of $5 million within 48 months.

World’s leading gold company

Legacy Minerals chief executive officer and managing director, Christopher Byrne, says having the world’s leading gold company’s extensive experience in the discovery and development of epithermal systems is a significant boost for the company and the project.

He said the JV is looking for a “Tier 1” gold deposit at Bauloora, which has been labelled as one of the largest low sulphidation epithermal systems in the Lachlan Fold Belt.

“With our joint venture partner Newmont, Legacy Minerals is now in the fortunate position to be able fund and undertake these large, systematic surveys – at a scale and pace of exploration that is often beyond the reach of a junior exploration company,” Mr Byrne said.

“We will have detailed magnetic and radiometric surveys completed across the entire Bauloora tenement. Further to this we will have AMT resistivity models that provide visibility down to over 1,000m depth across an entire 10 square km of the Bauloora vein field. This will vector our drilling towards the resistive ‘feeder structures’ that may host high-grade gold-silver mineralisation in ore shoots on veins.”

The results of the newly launched exploration campaign of geophysical and geochemical works will be utilised in planning for an upcoming drill campaign starting with the Breccia Sinter prospect in Q3/Q4 2023.

Audio-Magnetotellurics survey

One of the features of the program will be an 83 line-km Audio-Magnetotellurics (AMT) survey covering over 10 sq. km of the Bauloora Vein Field.

AMT is renowned as a geophysical survey technique which has been successful in targeting low sulphidation.

The JV is utilising the technology to help define resistive ‘feeder structures’ that may host high-grades of gold and silver.

Aerial Magnetics and Radiometrics

The JV is also carrying out a fixed wing magnetics and radiometrics program to be flown across the entire 330 sq. km Bauloora Project.

Geophysical contractors Quantec and AGS will undertake the survey.

To help provide high quality magnetic and radiometric survey data, flight lines will be acquired at 50m line spacing at a height of ~60m.

Legacy says this will significantly improve upon the currently available low resolution data from previously flown surveys with 200m and 250m line spacing.

Geological mapping planned

The JV is also preparing to commence detailed geological mapping in the next few months.

The mapping will focus on delineation of surface vein trends, lithological boundaries and structural controls to vein deposition.

Expected to take around six weeks to complete, the results of the campaign will be used in the compilation of a new solid geology map.

Golden history

The Lachlan Fold Belt has a long history of mineral production including gold, copper, lead, zinc, silver and tin.

The area is home to some of Australia’s largest gold mines, including Newcrest Mining’s 50 million ounce (Moz) Cadia Ridgeway operation and Evolution Mining’s 15Moz Cowal gold project.

Geoscience Australia says the potential for new discoveries in the Lachlan Fold Belt remains high.