Xpedra targets untested depths along 1.1km NSW gold corridor

Xpedra Resources is gearing up to launch its biggest-ever drilling program at the company's Springfield gold deposit in central New South Wales, with plans to test a massive 1.1-kilometre-long northern strike extension and build on a string of recent exploration successes.

The company says it has secured a drilling contractor and land access for its phase three reverse circulation (RC), program, expected to kick off shortly following final government approvals.

The campaign will comprise between 40 and 50 holes totalling 4000 to 5000 metres of drilling. The program represents a significant step-up from the 31 holes for 3471m that Xpedra put into the project since it began drilling there in March this year.

While historical exploration in the northern corridor previously outlined extensive shallow gold and arsenic anomalism, it has never been tested at depth with RC drilling, presenting a compelling opportunity to expand the scale of the mineralised system.

Xpedra Resources managing director Scott Funston, said: “Our Phase Three drilling program represents an important step-up in our exploration at the Springfield Gold Deposit. The key objective of this upcoming program is growth. For the first time, we will begin systematically testing a 1.1km long corridor immediately north of the 400-metre long zone of shallow continuous mineralisation that we have delineated to date.

Xpedra's drilling at Springfield since March has already defined a broad, shallow, continuous gold system over 400m of strike that remains open along its entire strike. Mineralisation has shown good continuity from surface down to at least 150m vertically, with the company now looking to probe deeper extensions to the known gold system.

The drilling will also target extensions of emerging higher-grade gold zones, including a standout result of 94m at 2 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 80 metres depth, including a spectacular higher-grade core of 13m grading 10.21g/t gold from 81m.

Other significant results from the first two phases of drilling include a 64-metre hit at 1.34g/t gold from 140m, enclosing a 21-metre run at 2.41g/t gold from 167m depth. Near-surface mineralisation has also been a feature, with one hole returning 24m at 2.97g/t gold from surface, including a 15-metre chunk going 4.27g/t gold, including 8m assaying 6.71g/t gold from surface. Another hole nailed a strong 44-metre run at 2.03g/t gold from just 1m depth.

Xpedra acquired a 100 per cent interest in the Springfield gold deposit 12 months ago. The project sits within the well-endowed Lachlan Orogen of NSW, a region known for hosting world-class deposits such as Newmont Corporation's massive Cadia underground and open-cut copper and gold mining operation 110km south of Springfield near Orange in New South Wales.

Cadia hosts a resource of 1.28 billion tonnes containing 2.6 million ounces of gold and 2.3 million tonnes of copper. With other significant operations within 250km of Springfield, including the 420.8-million-tonne Northparkes copper-gold and the 285.1-million-tonne Cowal gold operation, this mineral-rich stretch of terrain 300 kilometres west of Sydney looks like serious geological elephant country.

Prior to Xpedra’s arrival, the Springfield project had seen only very limited historical drilling, with no work undertaken since 1999. Now, with a major new drilling campaign locked in, Xpedra looks poised to test the true scale of the Springfield mineralised system.

Having already proven up a 400m-long gold zone that remains open along strike and potentially below 150m depth, the company is now setting its sights on a target area nearly three times that size in what could prove to be a transformational phase of exploration.

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