The Springfield gold project in central NSW has delivered more broad, high-grade hits for Xpedra Resources following hot on the heels of a near-100m intersection running 2 grams per tonne gold reported earlier this month. Amongst the latest assays flowing from a maiden drill program, the best of the recent results came from one of the deepest holes drilled so far, which returned 22 metres grading 2.62 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 120m, including 5m at 4.60g/t gold from 120m and 5m at 4.45g/t gold from 133m.
Xpedra has now received assays from all 27 holes completed in its maiden reverse circulation program for a total of 2579 metres of drilling, the first undertaken at Springfield since 1999.
The campaign has outlined continuous broad gold mineralisation across more than 400m of strike within the outline of a 1.7km-long mineralised intrusion. Several holes have delivered impressive shallow intercepts, including 44m at 2.03g/t gold from 1m, 24m at 2.97g/t gold from surface and 37m at 1.90g/t gold from surface.
Xpedra Resources managing director Scott Funston said: “The Company has now received all assay results from our maiden 27-hole drilling program at the Springfield Deposit, which has been a phenomenally successful program. Assays from the final two holes continue to underline the emergence of a significant intrusion-hosted gold system at Springfield.”
Management believes its growing dataset points to a robust intrusion-hosted gold system containing multiple higher-grade shoots enclosed within wider mineralised halos.
The company is particularly encouraged by historical gold and arsenic anomalies in shallow sampling along the northern 1.1km of the intrusion, an area that remains entirely untested by modern drilling. That northern extension has emerged as a priority target for the next phase of exploration, alongside further testing of the increasingly attractive depth potential highlighted by the latest drilling.
Xpedra has also completed a second-phase drilling program comprising four deeper follow-up holes for 867m. Assay results from those holes are expected within the next three to four weeks and will help shape a larger third-stage campaign to test for further extensions along strike and at depth.
With around $3.1M in cash at the June quarter and a growing catalogue of thick, shallow and higher-grade gold intersections, the company appears well-set to keep pushing Springfield's boundaries.
If its planned near-future drilling can deliver similar or better results from deeper drilling and along the untested northern strike, Springfield looks like it could rapidly evolve into one of the more intriguing emerging gold discoveries in the NSW sector.
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By Doug Bright
