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Murray Ward
Locksley Resources has consolidated a commanding 1000-square-kilometre land package at its Greater Tottenham copper-gold project in central New South Wales, with the grant of a new exploration licence named Tottenham-West. The new lease adds a 139-square-kilometre slab of underexplored territory hosting an intriguing 10km-long structural feature that has never felt the bite of a drill bit.
The total land package now comprises about 800 square kilometres of granted ground, including the companyโs optioned 188 square kilometre Iron Duke project, with a further 197 square kilometres under application, giving the company a dominant position in a key copper-gold belt.
The new ground strategically plugs a gap between Locksleyโs existing tenements along the highly prospective Tritton Trend. It consolidates the companyโs position across a district containing more than 50km of prospective mineralised and geophysical trends.
The real intrigue lies in a 10km-long, northwest-trending geological feature identified from airborne magnetic data. Despite its scale, government databases show no recorded drilling anywhere within the new licence area, leaving the structure effectively untested by modern exploration.
โThis new licence and application close the gaps in our coverage.โ
Locksley Resources Chairman Bevan Tarratt
However, a dig through the archives has unearthed some tantalising historical clues. Heavy-mineral sampling conducted by Duval Mining in the 1980โs turned up some noteworthy results.
One sample taken at the southern end of the structural feature returned 0.4 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 800 parts per million (ppm) tin and a solid 2400ppm tungsten. Five samples collected from the northern block of the new licence returned even better results, with one hitting up to 1.3g/t gold, 2200ppm tin and 3000ppm tungsten.
Locksley Resources chairman Bevan Tarratt said: โThis new licence and application close gaps in our coverage and aim to give Locksley control of the trends we are targeting, from the Carolina area in the north through to Iron Duke in the south. Continuous coverage means our district-wide review can follow the best targets wherever they lead, rather than stopping at a tenure boundary.โ
The Greater Tottenham project sits within the well-endowed Cobar Basin and Lachlan Orogen, a region NSW Resources recognises as a key setting for copper mineralisation and home to major operations such as Tritton, CSA and the giant Cadia Valley.
The regional potential was recently underscored by the NSW Governmentโs approval of Aeris Resourcesโ nearby Constellation copper project, host to 160,000 tonnes of contained copper, 170,000 ounces of gold and 630,000 ounces of silver. The project is earmarked as a new ore source designed to support the long-term future of its Tritton operations.
- Locksley is looking to build on that regional pedigree, backed by a sizeable copper-gold resource of its own. The company recently pivoted its entire focus to the NWS project after shelving its US antimony assets, going all-in on a district that already hosts an existing resource at the Tottenham prospect of 9.86 million tonnes (Mt) grading 0.73 per cent copper, 0.22g/t gold and 2g/t silver.
Locksley recently expanded its portfolio by securing an option on the nearby Iron Duke project, adding a historical resource to its inventory of 1.3 Mt at one per cent copper and 0.6g/t gold.
The company says permitting with the NSW Mines Department for the project is well advanced for an initial 5500-metre program, designed from 28 drill pads. The drilling will test a 150-metre gap in the known mineralisation and probe for extensions.
Notably, Iron Duke features a history of high-grade results. Previous rock chip sampling returned values up to a spectacular 26.1 per cent copper, while drilling delivered intercepts including 13m at a hefty 1.56 per cent copper and 4.48g/t gold from just 37m.
At the same time, the company is designing a bigger 10,000-metre drill program for its Carolina and Mount Royal-Orange Plains prospects within Locksleyโs main Tottenham exploration licence to test sparsely drilled areas and chase extensions to known high-grade mineralisation. Additionally, management is finalising an independent mineral resource estimate for Tottenham and Iron Duke, which it says will provide a geological baseline for future resource growth drilling.
The move to build up a sizeable domestic copper-gold portfolio comes as the NSW Government actively positions the red metal as a strategic growth commodity, with state production having already risen by a third in the past three years. The governmentโs Critical Minerals Strategy identifies copper as one of its five priority metals needed to meet the massive demand from global electrification and the energy transition.
With its eyes now squarely on home soil, the company has moved quickly from strategy to execution. It has established a local operations base, is systematically reviewing historical drill core to sharpen its targets and is advancing plans for a major 15,500-metre drilling campaign.
With a new strategic focus, an existing resource base, a massive 1000-square-kilometre landholding and a maiden drilling blitz on the horizon, Locksley has assembled the critical mass for a serious district-scale exploration push.
And now with a new, undrilled 10-kilometre structure lined up for the drill bit, the company looks set to generate plenty of newsflow as it gets busy joining the dots.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
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