Legend Mining Limited (ASX:LEG) has restarted diamond drilling at Area D of its flagship Rockford Nickel-Copper-Zinc-Silver-Gold Project in the prolific Fraser Range district.
The restarted drilling campaign is on track and aims to test two remodelled conductors D1 and D5 at the project.
Legend Mining managing director Mark Wilson said last Wednesday: “We are very pleased to be back diamond drilling at Rockford after a period of extensive preparatory field and desktop activities (and drilling) should commence (next) week with the first hole into the D5 target.”
JVs cover Nova-style ground
Nickel explorer Legend Mining Ltd (ASX:LEG) runs the project in partnership with high-profile explorer Mark Creasy and his Creasy Group Pty Ltd and nickel-copper-gold-zinc and silver producer Independence Group NL (ASX:IGO) (FRA:IDZ) (OTCMKTS:IPGDF).
The project extends over 3,088 square kilometres of land prospective for an ore body similar to the Nova-Bollinger nickel-copper deposit.
Legend and its partners have a series of joint ventures going for the project and varying stakes in the various tenements that make up Rockford.
Project in licensed territory
Fourteen granted contiguous exploration licences are found at Rockford, covering about 120 kilometres northeast of Independence’s signature Nova-Bollinger nickel-copper underground mine.
Legend directly holds 238 square kilometres of the package while a further 634 square kilometres is in an Independence Group-managed JV with IGO, Creasy and Legend as partners, and 24 square kilometres in an IGO-Legend JV with IGO as manager.
Cash to get on with things
Legend’s interests in the JVs are free carried after Independence Group became a major investor in the company with a $9.8 million new share subscription endorsed by Legend shareholders.
At the end of September 2019 Legend now has $13.4 million in cash and an interest-producing receivable that it can use to promote newsflow as the partners advance their project.
Today the explorer confirmed it had added to its holdings after receiving a scheduled $250,000 receivable payment from Jindal Steel and Power.
The partners’ Rockford package covers a strike length of at least 100-kilometres over a high regional gravity “ridge” associated with the dense mafic/ultramafic intrusive rocks of the Fraser Zone, within the larger Albany-Fraser Orogen.
Nova-Bollinger is also in Fraser Zone, on a gravity ridge of similar tenor to Rockford project.
An agenda for next steps
Area D is one of the prospective areas at the project, with the new drilling at Area D to test the LF-MLTEM conductors D5 and D1 using a drill rig on-site.
The project team also plans to continue to conduct regional aircore drilling at targets that have similar aeromagnetic and gravity features to Area D.
Legend has reported diamond drill campaigns are planned for Octagonal-Magnus, Crean, Worsely and Shackleton prospects in 2020.
Reverse circulation (RC) drilling at Shackleton is also on the cards for next year.