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DIGGeRs & DeALeRs Legend recently raised $20 million for

exploration in the Fraser Range

Legend goes big in Fraser Rangeegend goes big in Fraser Range
L

egend Mining Ltd’s $20 million capital Further assays were expected to be re- ince to explore because of the soil cover,
Lraising in June is indicative of the finan- leased at the time of print. the geologists can’t see the fresh rocks
cial clout needed to explore in the Fraser “I don’t expect the assays to be anything so there are no cheap goals out there.
Range. remarkably different to the ones we have You can’t do soils; all your soils have to be
When Sirius Resources released as- already announced, but the fact is that the done with aircore drilling which is a factor
says of 4m @ 3.8% nickel and 1.42% people can then see that they are there,” more expensive than traditional soils pro-
copper from hole SFRC0024 at Nova in Legend managing director Mark Wilson grammes.
mid-2012, it began an exploration boom told Paydirt. “Our guys are trying to drill through 60-
in the region as punters backed a wave of In the meantime, the company an- 80m of cover to find what they are looking
“nearology” plays. nounced that the higher resolution, closed for and then they have a 40mm hole to tell
As Sirius continued its string of success spaced detailed gravity survey at Mawson them what it is. That is not going to change
at Nova, expectations grew that the next had identified three gravity-high anoma- about the Fraser Range but what is chang-
hole drilled by another junior would pro- lies, with “anomalous nickel-copper air- ing is the knowledge. We have always
duce a replica. core geochemistry [straddling] the gravity had a philosophy of looking for coincident
History shows that explorers became anomalies”. gravity highs and mag lows and focusing
fatigued and funding dried up in the hunt Testing the gravity and geochemistry on that. That is what Mawson is and that
for the next Nova, which is still yet to occur. targets is planned in an upcoming RC pro- could well be a step forward for the whole
The closest indication of a Nova-esque gramme. of the Fraser Range,” he said.
find has been delivered by Legend with the “The gravity high is being interpreted as Occupying some 3,000sq km, Legend
Mawson prospect at the Rockford project, having a very dense rock as the cause of has amassed about 20% of the total area
120km north-east of Nova. it. Then you have these two footprints of of the Fraser Range, while IGO, Galileo
In March, Legend announced the best anomalous geochemistry either side of it, Mining Ltd and Creasy Group are also sig-
hit in the Fraser Range since Nova with talking about Mawson as it is at the mo- nificant landholders.
diamond drilling returning three mas- ment it has been squeezed off something Therefore, the secrets of the Fraser
sive nickel-copper sulphide intercepts in that is close by and big; the combination Range will be tightly held by a few.
RKDD008 (199.4-205.0m [5.6m]; 218.2- of that is going to tell a story,” Wilson said. “Going back to the Sirius discovery, the
225.1m [6.9m]; 234.9-247.7m [12.8m], with With funding in place – $27 million after Fraser Range was broken up like grand-
five significant intervals of nickel-copper the recent placement – Legend’s explora- ma’s patchwork quilt; different companies
sulphide mineralisation reported, including tion programmes are assured for the fore- with smaller tenement holdings, but one by
the three comprising massive sulphides of seeable future. one they learned the lesson that size mat-
pyrrhotite-chalcopyrite-pentlandite. Geophysics through moving loop EM ters out here,” Wilson said.
The company has since followed that surveys and aircore drilling are effective “If you haven’t got a big enough pack-
up with the best hole it has ever drilled, means of exploration Legend will contin- age to look regionally it is very hard and
RKDD0017, with a total of 30.05m of mas- ue to deploy across the Rockford project expensive…actually it is not hard if you
sive sulphides in three intervals (19.8m where $6-8 million has been budgeted. have the money. It is expensive exploring
from 227.8-247.6m, 7.45m from 158.6m- The strategy has the support of major small packages.
166.05m, 2.8m from 193.1-195.9m, all shareholders Creasy Group (27%) and “The land isn’t there and available for
downhole) intersected. In May, RKDD013 IGO Ltd (14.2%). a new land rush and it probably speaks
returned two massive sulphide intervals “Regionally, we will keep going at $4 mil- more to the fact that Legend was able to
of 12m @ 2.36% nickel, 1.36% copper, lion because it is really important that you raise $20 million because we have the
0.12% cobalt from 239.2m and 1.5m @ keeping growing your knowledge base go- land package to spend it on.”
2.33% nickel, 3.76% copper and 0.12% ing forward,” Wilson said. – Mark Andrews
cobalt from 257.5m. “It is always going to be a difficult prov-

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