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Carrying the Lode

in New England

by Michael Washbourne

he New England Fold Belt is every bit as prospective as assays recently confirming the discovery of disseminated gold
Tthe neighbouring but heavily-populated Lachlan Fold Belt, mineralisation at the Hudson’s prospect, part of the company’s
according to Lode Resources Ltd managing director Ted Leschke, Uralla gold project. Best intersections from first-pass drilling
who is thankful his company was a first mover on arguably the included 15m @ 2.09 g/t gold from 12m (including 7m @ 3.65 g/t
most underexplored region in New South Wales. from 15m and 4m @ 4.18 g/t from 15m) and 14m @ 1.24 g/t gold
Hillgrove is currently the only operating metalliferous mine on the from 68m (including 2m @ 2.04 g/t from 9m and 3m @ 2.21 g/t
New England Fold Belt, which reached peak activity between the from 77m).
1850s and the World War I. Based on today’s prices, estimated Leschke said the company believed it was on to a potentially
output over that period would have generated $US7 billion, or large intrusive-related gold system at Uralla.
20% of the State’s GDP. “We’ve done some drone mag work to map those structures and
Mining company expenditure across the belt in 2018 totalled just we’ll be able to develop a strong model to assist us with our drilling
$US200 million, mainly from coal resources. going forward, in addition to the surface geochemistry,” he said.
According to Lode, New England has just one exploration hole for “It became clear to us that while it’s all structurally related, the
every 13 drilled into the Lachlan Fold Belt, which has been awash dissemination means it’s not restricted to just thin veins, it’s
with both juniors and majors over recent years since Alkane actually got some volume potential to it. We’ve done a lot of
Resources Ltd’s breakthrough Boda gold-copper porphyry mapping and sampling and put in some early holes and got some
discovery. attractive results, probably not quite attractive enough to excite
Prior to listing last July, Lode established a dominant position the market, but for first pass it’s a pretty good start.”
on the New England Fold Belt, Prior to the recent work at
headlined by the Uralla gold, Uralla, investors did get excited
Webbs Consol silver-zinc and by the first-phase drilling
Trough Gully copper projects. results at Webbs Consol which
Leschke continues to be produced hits of 27.5m @ 467
amazed at how little exploration g/t silver equivalent (or 9.44%
has taken place in the region zinc equivalent) from 104.6m
since the 1970s. and 24.15m @ 374 g/t silver
equivalent (or 7.57% zinc
“The New England Fold Belt
equivalent) from 122.9m.
was explored during a time
when the framework in terms of Shares in Lode climbed from
access to ground hadn’t been 14c to as high as 43.5c on the
fully developed, but now there back of that announcement
is a framework and it just hasn’t but have since retreated to
had the attention because the the original levels despite the
Lachlan Fold Belt has been Lode has made a successful start to exploration across its success at Uralla.
sucking all the oxygen,” Leschke portfolio along the New England Fold Belt “We simply put in a drill hole to
told GMJ. test the extension of that deposit
“But therein lies opportunity because there are, I believe, equal [Webbs Consol] and we came up with those very exciting results,”
amount of prospects in the New England Fold Belt as there is in Leschke said.
the Lachlan. Everyone thinks it lacks prospectivity, but if you look “It was known primarily as a silver deposit, but our drilling has
at what the old timers found and some of the surface work done actually shown that it is just as equally rich in zinc. At this stage,
by the big companies in the 70s, the prospectivity is equal to the we don’t know which way to go in terms of metal equivalents,
Lachlan Fold Belt. hence why we’ve reported both.
“We all know that if you don’t drill, you don’t find. There’s been “The older timers were never attracted to zinc because there was
very limited drilling and we intend to change that.” no way of beneficiating that metal out of the ore and there just
Lode has already tasted some success with the drill bit with wasn’t a market for it.”

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