Lodestar Minerals makes major gold system find
Shares in Lodestar Minerals (ASX: LSR) have jumped on the news that a major gold system has been discovered in Western Australia.
The gold explorer today confirmed the find after analysing results from the drilling of two reverse circulation (RC) and 75 aircore holes at its wholly-owned Neds Creek and 80%-owned Yowereena projects, located about 150km north-east of Meekatharra, WA.
At the Neds Creek project, gold mineralisation was confirmed at the Contessa prospect, including one drill hole yielding 10m at 1.4 grams per tonne gold from 138m.
The Gidgee Flat prospect, also located at Neds Creek, intersected mineralisation in eight out of 14 drill holes. High-grade results included 20m at 2.4g/t gold from 44m, and 4m at 11g/t gold from 48m.
Lodestar Minerals’ Neds Creek project location map.
According to Lodestar, the results from Gidgee Flat were “highly significant and may represent the most significant advance at Neds Creek since the initial discovery of Contessa in 2013”.
“These results represent a step-change in realising the gold potential at Neds Creek and support the company’s firm belief that sustained, systematic exploration will create significant opportunity for the discovery of economic resources,” the company stated.
At the Yowereena project, Lodestar also reported thick intersections of shallow gold mineralisation returned from first-pass reconnaissance aircore drilling. Yield results included 16m at 1.6g/t gold from 28m, and 12m at 1.7g/t gold from 48m.
The company is earning an 80% stake in the Yowereena tenements, with the remaining 20% interest held by Vango Mining.
Lodestar said its next steps were to complete follow-up RC drilling at the Contessa and Gidgee Flat prospects as early as practicable in the first quarter of 2018, with the aim of defining the extent of the mineralisation.
Share trading in Lodestar has eased a bit since this morning’s spike but remained up almost 89% by midday trade.