Goodrich Resources (ASX: GRX) has delivered an Inferred Resource of 500,000 tonnes at 2.2 grams per tonne (g/t) gold for the Lachlan deposit, at Calarie near Forbes in central New South Wales.
Importantly, the small tonnage deposit provides Goodrich with potential short-term cash flow while it explores for a large tonnage porphyry copper-gold deposit similar to Newcrest Mining’s (ASX: NCM) 2.2 billion tonne Cadia-Ridgeway deposits and Rio Tinto’s (ASX: RIO) 153 million tonne Northparkes mine.
The Resource at Lachlan, which is located just 50 kilometres south of the Northparkes mine and 50 kilometres northwest of the Cadia-Ridgeway deposits, is near-surface, open to depth and along strike.
The Lachlan gold lode is 0.8 to 1 kilometres long and occurs at the faulted western contact of the Daroobalgie Volcanics. Between 1896 and 1908, three underground mines operated along the lode.
Mining records indicate that the Lachlan Goldfields Mine, the largest of the three mines, produced 39,000 ounces of gold by mining about 55,000 tonnes of ore at an average grade of 22g/t.
The ore lode ranged up to 12 metres in width. Mining was abandoned on rock faces grading 19-39g/t, because the price of gold at the time made further mining uneconomic.
A historic hole, drilled by TriAusMin (ASX: TRO) in 1998, assayed 1 metre at 8.2g/t gold.
The hole, which was located around 120 metres below an earlier Resource defined by Hargraves Resources between 1988 and 1997, suggests that the Lachlan lode extends downwards to at least this depth.
Significantly, this initial Inferred Resource of 500,000 tonnes at 2.2g/t corresponds well to the earlier Hargraves’ Resource of 514,493 tonnes at 2.16g/t, with strong potential for further increases to the Resource.
Newly minted Goodrich debuted on the ASX on Friday February 24 with around 18.5 million shares on issue following a successful IPO of 17.5 million shares at A$0.20 to raise a minimum of $3.5 million.
The company had a stellar start to public life, trading as high as A$0.22 in its first hour. Shares are still trading above its IPO price at $0.21.