Magmatic Resources Ltd (ASX:MAG) has capped off a diamond drilling campaign at its 100%-owned Wellington North Project in the iconic East Lachlan district of New South Wales’ Lachlan Fold Belt.
Altogether, the gold and copper explorer drilled eight holes, covering just under 2,000 metres, below the project’s Mitchell Creek underground gold mine within the wider, 230,000-ounce historical Bodangora Goldfield.
All core from the program has since been cut and sent away for assays with results expected sometime next month.
In addition, Magmatic has completed its phase one high-resolution ground magnetic survey over extensions of the Bodangora Goldfield. Interpretation is underway, with a phase two work program to follow.
Wellington North is north of Australia’s largest gold producer, Newcrest Mining Ltd, at Cadia East and effectively surrounds Alkane Resources Ltd’s Boda gold-copper discovery.
Diamond drilling at Bodangora
Magmatic’s initial phase of diamond drilling targeted extensions and repetitions of gold mineralisation across the Bodangora Goldfield.
The program centred on the Mitchell’s Creek gold mine, with eight holes completed, progressing from north to south testing beneath the old mine workings over a 1.2-kilometre strike.
The company recently completed core cutting and submitted samples to the laboratory for gold and base metal analysis.
Meanwhile, a further drill program is planned, targeting the historical Dicks Reward gold mine.
Extensions to Bodangora Goldfield
Magmatic believes there has been little modern exploration for northern extensions and repetitions of the Bodangora Goldfield.
As such, the gold and base metal explorer is completing additional exploration activities in a bid to pinpoint new areas of gold mineralisation.
However, the timing of this work is largely dependent on gaining access after cropping activities, which occurred in December, and were also limited by rain events and NSW COVID restrictions.
Ground magnetic survey
As the area of interest at Wellington North is largely soil covered, magmatic has defined a property for ultra-detailed ground magnetic surveying in order to map underlying geological units and structures.
The survey area includes the Mitchell’s Creek and Dicks Reward mines and may define the extensions of these mineralised structures.
This survey, on 25-metre line spacing, is partially complete (with 154 line kilometres flown to date) and interpretation has commenced.
Geochemical sampling
Within the same area as the ground magnetics, a program of near surface geochemical sampling has commenced.
The program involves surface soil sampling in areas of residual soil and aircore drilling (currently underway) in areas of transported cover.
Samples from the program are analysed by portable XRF for trace base metals — such as copper, lead and zinc, which are coincident with gold at Bodangora — prior to submission to the laboratory for gold and a suite of base metals analysis.