Lode Resources unearths high-grade silver in underexplored New England Fold Belt

Junior metals explorer Lode Resources (ASX: LDR) is continuing to explore its Webbs Consol silver project in New South Wales following last week’s high-grade discovery at Copy Cat lode, now turning its focus to Tangoa West.

The Webbs Consol project is one of seven brownfield projects the company holds in the highly prospective but underexplored New England Fold Belt in the northeast of the state.

Last week the explorer revealed a maiden hole drilled into the Copy Cat lode had returned high-grade silver-lead-zinc-copper mineralisation over a thick intercept at shallow depths including 1.5 metres at 1,899 grams per tonne silver equivalent, within a broader intercept of 20.5m at 375 g/t silver equivalent.

Drilling results

Copy Cat is the sixth sulphide lode discovered to date at the project and this latest hole was notably the first to contain more than 1% copper over the entire 20.5m intercept.

In addition to Copy Cat, Lode Resources also intersected 47.4m at 153 g/t silver equivalent at the Castlereagh lode, extending mineralisation to a vertical depth of 110m.

The company is currently drill testing the Tangoa West lode at depth and below a previous drill hole which returned 27.3m at 412g/t silver equivalent, including an aggregate 5.9m at 1,107g/t.

Downhole electromagnetic (DHEM) gravity and magnetic surveys are also currently underway. All six mineralised lodes identified within the Webbs Consol project to date remain open and these surveys are expected to help target depth and strike extensions as well as identify new targets.

Lode Resources managing director Ted Leschke said the near-surface high-grade mineralisation discovered in the six lodes to date demonstrate the “rich endowment and potential scale of the Webbs Consol mineral system”.

“This has heightened our confidence in ongoing exploration efforts,” he added.

New England Fold Belt assets

Lode Resources’ latest drilling results form part of an ongoing phase two drilling program at the Webbs Consol silver project, located 16km west-south-west of Emmaville, NSW. The area was discovered in 1890 with intermittent mining up to the mid-1950s.

The six mineralised lodes discovered at the project to date include Main Shaft, Tangoa West, Castlereagh, Mt Galena, Copy Cat and Lucky Lucy North.

Also within the New England Fold Belt, Lode Resources holds the Uralla gold project containing the Hudson’s Prospect discovery, the large gold anomaly Thor, underexplored goldfield Tea Tree, Trough Gully (Fender) high-grade zinc, copper-gold volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) style copper deposit, Elsinore containing base metals anomalies, and Sandon, with newly added copper and base metal exploration targets, Bundarra and Abington.

The most significant mining period for the New England Fold Belt was from the 1850s up to World War I. However, the region remains is underexplored compared to the neighbouring Lachlan Fold Belt, which has had 13 exploration holes drilled for every 1 drilled into the New England Fold Belt.